As the residential realty segment continues to remain sluggish, leading realty players in Tamil

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Nadu are gearing up to woo home buyers by offering more affordable home projects and sharing a portion of the interest burden at the upcoming property exhibition in Chennai.

About 45 developers, including some pan-India players exhibited 250 residential projects, which will come up in and around Chennai, at Fairpro 2010, a three-day property exhibition held between February 19 and 21 at the Chennai Trade Centre.

“The total value of these residential projects will be about Rs 3,000 crore with prices varying from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 8 crore,” said Sandeep Mehta, chairman of Fairpro 2010.

A key feature of this year’s exhibition, titled Ownership Without Burden, is that developers will share a portion of the interest rate burden on home loans through a subvention scheme. Developers have come out with an attractive low interest home loan offer of 5.99 per cent onwards for prospective buyers at the exhibition.

“The special offer is part of a subvention scheme devised by builders and not a concession offered by the financial institutions or banks,” said Mehta.

The interest subvention scheme will be offered by the developers according to the amount disbursed to them on or before March 2010. The scheme will cover fixed interest rate available on home loans for two years. About 80 per cent of the projects to be showcased at the exhibition will be in the price range of Rs 25-30 lakh. About 90 per cent of the projects will be covered under the subvention scheme. While the event will showcase about 250 units that are ready for occupancy, it will also see launch of over 30 new projects, mostly in the below Rs 30 lakh segment.

Fairpro 2010, the third edition in the series, will be organised by Tamil Nadu chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (Credai). The event has been conceived to bring most of the builders under one roof and offer hassle-free deals with legal clarity and proper approvals to homebuyers.

T Chitti Babu, president, Credai, Tamil Nadu, said the exhibition would facilitate home buying as the financial institutions such as ICICI Bank, HDFC and Reliance will be present along with developers to provide spot finance options for buyers.

With the interest subvention scheme, developers with no takers for several of their projects seek to speed up sales on the back of revival in several sectors. The real estate industry faced a severe blow due to the global economic downturn last year. However, industry representatives said the slowdown has resulted in shifting of focus towards affordable housing category.

According to a recent study by property consultancy firm, Knight Frank India, a key trend emerging in the realty segment across seven major cities is the increased focus of developers on 2-3BHK housing units from the 4-5BHK and penthouses witnessed a few years ago.