mumbai the increase in the demand for housing in the past one month appears to be restricted to new projects according to industry trackers resale properties do not have too many takers at least not in the large cities in the case of new projects developers have been offering attractive discounts while prices in the resale segment have remained hightypically resale properties come with a larger unaccountable component also referred to as black this as a proportion of the total price was earlier between 25 and 30 while it is now as much as 40 for instance in goregaon a suburb in western mumbai the property price of a one bedroom apartment that is six years old was around rs 40 lakh with the seller demanding rs 16 lakh in black compared with not more than rs 12 lakh late last yearsellers have held on to the price in cities such as delhi mumbai and bangalore these tieri cities saw prices rise sharply in the midst of the boom praful joshi a mumbaibased real estate agent said with the sellers of older property not reducing the rates the number of transactions have reduced substantiallyagreed sunil bajaj another citybased property consultant the asking rate for old property market is not in line with the prevailing market rate in kandivali a suburb in western mumbai the price of an apartment on the first floor on a per square foot basis was as expensive as the one on the penthouse in the same building he added that the flat has remained unsoldpotential buyers have not been finding the going easy amit desai a mumbaibased professional employed in a large business group is one such person for a salaried employee the rates for older property is out of reach since sellers ask for at least 30 of the price in black this means you get a loan only on the white component the price after deducting the black componentindustry observers said new property has witnessed a price drop of 3050 in the past six months that is the result of developers facing a liquidity crunch and falling demand some buyers have chosen not to go ahead with the purchase as they feared the property might not be completed this has led developers to offer schemes like getting the buyer to make a partial payment initially and pay the rest at the time of possession