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That house you’ve been longing for may be within your budget soon. Real estate developers have decided to cut prices on the houses they  sell by 5 to 10%. Faced with a situation in which buyers had become scarce, two major bodies of builders announced the proposed cuts on Thursday.

Developers feel that the announcement of cutting the price will help satisfy the general perception in the market place that real estate prices should fall and hence bring buyers who were adopting a wait and watch attitude into the market.

“At present, end users are waiting for the prices of real estate to fall to enter in the market. The decision to cut prices should meet their demand and make them purchase houses,” said Rohtas Goel, president of the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) and CMD of Omaxe.

Kumar Geram chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association (CREDAI) and CMD of Pune-based Gera Properties, said the association has urged and advised its 3,500 member developers to make every effort to lower prices to the levels possible. He said this would have a desirable effect on demand.

Interestingly, the rate cut announcement came just two days after the industry had dismissed finance minister P Chidambaram’s plea for lower prices as unrealistic. It suggests that developers realise they must appear to be bowing to the popular expectation if they are to see a revival in the housing market.

Developers say that the prices of premium products, which cost over Rs 3,000 per sq feet, will be lowered by a minimum of 10%. That means, prices of a typical three-bedroom apartment of over 1,500 sq feet will come down from about Rs 50 lakh to Rs 45 lakh. . Prices of apartments that cost over Rs 1 crore currently would come down by at least Rs 10 lakh. READ AT TIMES OF INDIA