new delhi the richer middle class too is feeling the impact of the slowdown and isnt buying homes like before badly impacting sales of luxury homes in mumbai sales of luxury homes anything above rs 5 crore in the last three quarters have dropped 35 while gurgaon has witnessed a 40 drop in sales of apartments above rs 3 crore in bangalore sales are down at least 20 in the rs 25 crore and above segment says real estate research firm liases foras when the economy is down and spending is cut this is the segment thats hit first says lalit kumar jain chairman of the confederation of real estate developers associations of india property brokers and advisory firms say home sales in this segment have tapered in the last few months its now getting increasingly difficult to sell luxury homes across major markets like gurgaon mumbai and bangalore says mudassir zaidi regional director for global property consultant knight frank many businessmen who usually invest their surplus funds in real estate have seen their cash flows getting tightened because of a slowing economy and the rupee touching 60 these buyers who made a majority of buyers in the city are today out of the market in fact even endusers in this segment are today sitting on the fence says abhay khemka of khemka investments properties a realty brokerage firm in gurgaon areas like golf course road extension and the gurgaonfaridabad road have seen a number of luxury projects being launched in the past year it is now taking longer to sell apartments here says khemka in gurgaon many investors who are stuck with apartments they bought earlier are no longer buying fresh ones there are some investors who are offering discounts of up to 20 to sell their apartments in underconstruction projects compared to what a developer is offering in the same project on the golf course road extension for instance an investor is selling an apartment for rs 35 crore while the developer is selling a similar apartment in the same project for rs 45 crore prices of apartments in the luxury segment have risen too much in mumbai says pankaj kapoor managing director of liases foras luxury housing is driven by increase in prices and developers launched projects in recent months without realising that the market for this segment of apartments is very small he says in mumbai areas like mahalaxmi lower parel worli lokhandwala juhu and bandra saw a number of such projects being launched while the supply of homes in this segment in mumbai has increased by over 30 in the past year sales have dropped because of a slowing economy and high prices says kapoor bangalore is another market where supply has overtaken demand when it comes to the luxuryhousing segment according to liases foras bangalore has seen supply in this segment increase by 35 in the last three quarters and this along with high prices and a slowdown in the it