Real estate players expect the industry to recover in 2015.

The S&P BSE Realty index rose 16% this year till December 10. Much of it was due to rise in stock markets as a whole as there was no improvement in fundamentals of real estate companies in this period.

The debt of the 29 listed real estate companies whose results were available till March 31 was Rs 35,979 crore in March-end compared to Rs 34,906 crore in March 2013. Their operating profit in the first half of the current financial year rose slightly to Rs 3,655 crore from Rs 3,402 crore in the same period last year.

Real estate investments also gave poor returns as prices remain subdued in most markets, especially in the residential space. The table, Counting Gains, shows 0-6% rise in prices in 10 markets (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Noida, Gurgaon, Bhiwadi and Mumbai) in the one year to September-end. The real returns were negative considering 6-9% consumer price inflation. For those who took loans, which cost 10-10.5% a year, to buy a house, the returns were worse.