The sales momentum in the real estate industry has clearly slowed down during the quarter. On the demand side, consumers are postponing their purchases in anticipation of lower asset prices and interest rates.

Developers, for their part, are finding it difficult to access cheap credit with banks reluctant to lend to them. Both residential and retail demand have moderated though the demand for office space remains strong and with further supply coming in, prices could soften further.

However, despite slower sales of property and  a correction in prices in suburban areas of metros as also tier II cities, most property companies are expected to post reasonably good fourth quarter numbers.

Overall, they are expected to grow their sales by anywhere between 50-100 per cent in the March 2008 quarter compared with the December 2007 quarter.

A slowdown in the property market is reflected with a lag in the results of companies because most firms register revenues as and when a certain percentage of an ongoing project is completed.

Thus the March quarter will reflect revenues of projects that have already been started.  In a recent trend companies have started taking on mid-income housing projects.

DLF has started housing projects in Chennai, and Kolkata while Unitech has projects in Greater Noida, which are priced lower by about 20-25 per cent.

Brokerages expect the mid-income housing projects launched by property companies, such as DLF and Unitech, to help them post better sales in fourth quarter of 2007-08. Firms are also focussing on developing plots of land, which could be remunerative.