By Sarita Hunt, Managing Director – Chennai & Coimbatore, JLL India Average city-level price forecasted to rise by about 2% this year Known to be a market driven more by end-user demand than speculative investors, Chennai has never seen runaway price escalations unlike some of the more speculative markets in India. As the southern city matures, the size of its residential market has been expanding over the past few years. The residential market witnessed a price appreciation of 2.2% (y-o-y) in 2015 and is expected to see about 2% price hike in 2016. Many sceptics were expecting prices to be in the negative range at the end of the year. However, the office market witnessed a spike in demand by about 33% and this had a direct correlation with the residential prices which also witnessed a marginal growth. The demand remained stable in the middle and low- middle segments where the affordability was higher. Meanwhile, the luxury condominium demand dropped in 2015 as a result...