new delhi sunil jain a partner at legal firm j sagar associates did not bother too much with real estate prices and demand till about two years ago in 2011 he purchased two apartments near gurgaon with the intention of flipping them for a good return the market was doing well and he never dreamed he would have a problem exiting his investments in 2013 as the economic downturn gathered pace he decided he had waited long enough and put the properties on the block hoping to make a tidy sum in doublequick time it is november 2015 and jain is still waiting waiting for the right price and the right customer i have been trying to sell my apartments for the past two years but with no success jain says to make matters worse jain is paying interest on the loans and the properties are not giving him any returns flipping properties was very easy when i had bought but it has turned for the worse now he adds a top executive of a gurgaonbased business process outsourcing unit is in a similar fix he bought multiple apartments across the country using borrowed money the bpo executive had taken loans worth rs 78 crore to buy the properties hoping to sell one day when prices are higher that day never came and the gentleman is now finding it difficult to service the loans across mumbai and delhi empty apartments and houses are not just a reflection of the slowdown in real estate but also the craze for purchasing multiple properties among the countrys high net worth individuals hnis and top business executives hundreds of senior executives and hnis who benefitted from the boom in property from 200413 thought they could ride the surge for a little longer many see real estate as part of their retirement planning flipping assets at regular intervals has been an integral part of growing their money that ability is no longer there and they are now saddled with properties that wont sell and prices that are too low many of these executives who work as partners cxos and finance chiefs in good companies are now saddled with dud investments and highvalue loans that are increasingly becoming difficult to service its a logjam for many of these guys says samarjit singh managing director of indiahomescom he explains that real estate was being traded as a financial product and not as a real estate purchase for a period of four to five years in good times it was the best asset class in terms of returns and people doubled their money in a year he says a senior banker in gurgaon who has multiple properties in the city is in a quandary now he bought an apartment on the dwarka expressway for rs 6500 per sq ft in 2013 and took a loan for it he has been paying interest on the loan since then and now the price has dipped to rs 5500 per sq