Housing units sales record 20% spike in Jan-March 2021: Report

A consistent demand revival in the Indian realty landscape on the back of conducive Government policies and multiple incentives rolled out by the developers led housing units sales to record a 20% hike, year-on-year in Jan-March 2021, says 99acres.com report.

It highlighted Hyderabad and Bangalore having reported a relatively slow recovery due to the resurgence in COVID-19 cases. However, Chennai and Kolkata surpassed the pre-COVID demand levels. Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Pune showed consistent growth despite the second wave of coronavirus infections in March 2021.

The first quarter witnessed the launch  of about 600 new residential projects in the top eight metro cities. Mumbai, despite increasing COVID-19 cases, led all cities for the third quarter in a row with a 38% share in new and re-launched projects. Hyderabad surpassed Pune and took the second position of a 21% share; interestingly, Delhi-NCR again contributed the least with a 3% share in the overall new unit additions.

Maneesh Upadhyaya, Chief Business Officer, 99acres.com, said the first quarter of 2021 witnessed a resurgence in sales volume across metro cities, particularly in Pune and Mumbai, amid a stamp duty cut till March. “In line with the recovering market sentiment, site visits and sales, pricing power returned to the sellers. Based on properties listed on 99acres.com, none of the eight metro cities recorded a downward revision in average listing prices of residential apartments in Jan-March 2021 against the previous quarter.”

Buyer responses also reported a 7% surge in the same period on 99acres. Owner listings posted on the platform also went up by 20% in Jan-March 2021 against Oct-Dec 2020. The green shoots of recovery observed so far will have to stand the test of time with a steep surge in COVID-19 cases and the resultant restrictions in some cities may impact economic recovery, project construction timelines and buyer site visits.

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In regards to housing choices, the report pointed out that most of the demand for property priced more than one crore was driven by Delhi and Mumbai, followed by Bangalore and Hyderabad. However, affordable housing (within 40 lacs) remained the most popular choices with Kolkata leading the demand, followed by Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune. Bangalore saw the least demand for affordable houses while it leads maximum demand for mid-income housing. Ready homes or projects nearing completion continued to be the prime choice of homebuyers, and thus commanded a premium.