Trade disruptions squeeze margins and timelines for India’s luxury real estate

India’s luxury housing market is facing fresh supply-side strain due to delayed imports of high-end construction materials from the Middle East, Business Standard reports.

Supply bottleneck hits premium builders: About 40% of under-construction luxury residential projects across India’s top six big cities are currently facing a shortage of imported materials such as aluminum, glass facades, and fittings, industry executives told the daily.

By the numbers: Imported material costs in the luxury segment have spiked by 12-18% since the regional escalation began, driven by freight surcharges on affected sea lanes that have surged 40-60% above pre-conflict baselines. Aluminum for high-performance facades, curtain wall systems, and structural glazing — primarily sourced from the UAE and Bahrain — has seen prices jump 8-12% in the last quarter alone.

“The impact is most pronounced in the INR 50 mn and above segment where international specifications are the baseline, not the exception,” Ashwinder R. Singh, co-founder of realty firm BCD Royale, told the daily.

What’s next? With selling prices largely fixed, rising costs are squeezing margins for developers. This is forcing some of them to increase pricing for future launches and potentially accelerate a pivot toward domestic suppliers even as demand for luxury housing currently remains resilient.

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