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Ramesh Nair, CEO, India and Managing Director, Market Development, Asia, Colliers

"RBI hiked the repo rate for the third time in a row by 50 bps to 5.4% as the government tries to control inflationary pressures. With this, the repo rate has now increased by 140 bps in the last 3 months, with the rate hovering above pre-pandemic levels. Domestic economic activities remain resilient despite the challenging global financial and geopolitical environment, leading to the withdrawal of the accommodative stance by the RBI. The RBI kept its growth target unchanged at 7.2% for FY 2022-23. With respect to the rising repo rate, several banks have already begun rising home loan rates and this trend is expected to continue. Over the last year, the housing sector has seen a recovery in demand across segments, and the higher home loan rates could dent homebuyers’ sentiments, especially in the affordable to mid category. However, we do not see a significant impact on the high-end and luxury segments due to the higher home loan rates" -

Mr. Amit Goyal, CEO, India Sotheby’s International Realty

Given the need to tame inflation, the RBI decision to increase the repo rate by 50bps is on expected lines. With this third consecutive hike in the repo rate, we are now back to pre-pandemic levels, highest since August 2019.

Home loan rates are now expected to settle around  8% per annum, which can put a short-term psychological dent on the demand for the mid and affordable housing segment, but we won't see that continuing for long.  We are still in the comfort zone of a single-digit rate. With pent-up demand for housing post-COVID,  strong economic growth and a steady job market, we expect the demand momentum to continue in India's residential housing segment, especially in the top 6 cities, where office leasing and absorption has been strong.

Mr. Pankaj Pal, Group Executive Director, AIPL

The RBI decision is on the expected lines considering the current inflationary scenario. The lending and deposit rates are likely to firm up. It may have a slight impact, but we don’t foresee a major impact on the demand side in the housing market. It is likely to remain robust as real estate is largely viewed by buyers as the best investment option considering the volatility in the equity market, gold as well as other investment avenues.