A property exhibition at Navi Mumbai not only drew in huge crowds but also did big business—about 5,000 flats were sold in three days. Initially, most Navi Mumbai builders were reluctant to participate in the three-day exhibition because of the recession. By Monday, they were buoyed by the unexpected response. “According to rough estimates, the overall transactions were well over Rs 1,000 crore,’’ said Suresh Haware, chief of the Maharashtrian Builders Forum. “We are still in the process of calculating the number of flats sold. But it was most likely over 5000.’’

A senior office-bearer of the Builders Association of Navi Mumbai said over one lakh people visited the 3-day property exhibition, while 60 builders from Navi Mumbai, Mumbai, Thane and neighbouring areas exhibited their properties. Last year, the response was very poor as the exhibition was held just after the terror attack on November 26.

The builders found that there was more demand for flats in Kharghar, Panvel, Khandeshwar and Kamothe. Besides flats, there was a huge demand for shops too. “Surprisingly, we found that there were no takers for big flats—as a result, very few flats of 3,000 sq ft or more were sold. Flats between 600 and 800 sq ft were the most in demand,’’ Haware said. He and the other builders’ optimistic reading of the response to the fair is that the recession in the real estate sector is coming to an end.

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