Housing sales in Kolkata witnessed around 31 per cent year-on-year decline during the January-March period this year at nearly 3900 units, as the city’s residential market is impacted by high prices, weak global economy and volatile stock market.

During January-March last year (Q1 2024) around 5650 residential units were sold in Kolkata. “If we compare with pre-Covid period, then Q1 2025 housing sales declined by 3 per cent as compared to that in Q1 2019 when as many as 4020 units were sold in the city,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Group.

“That said, if we consider the unsold inventory in the city between the two periods then there has been a significant 40 per cent decline – from approximately 46,450 units back in Q1 2019-end to approximately 28,040 units as of Q1 2025-end. This is largely because developers have restricted new supply in the city in the last few years unlike many of its counterparts,” Puri said.

According to latest Anarock data, as far as new supply is concerned, Kolkata saw a 26 per cent growth to as many as 5400 units in the January-March period this year from 4290 units in the same period last year.

“If we consider quarterly data trends in Kolkata between 2019 to Q1 2025, then Q1 2023 witnessed the highest ever sales of approximately 6190 units in a given quarter. Overall, 2023 was the best for the city’s residential market in terms of housing sales with each quarter witnessing sales of more than 5500 units,” Puri added.

“This year the sales of residential units have declined in the Q1 of 2025 (January-March) in every market due to volatile stock market and financial year ending and people were not ready to invest. Kolkata has also witnessed a dip in sales volume as buyers’ decisions got influenced by the global economic downturn . After all, buying a house is one’s most important decision in life,” Sushil Mohta, President, CREDAI West Bengal, told businessline.

“Though sales have dipped, developers are quite upbeat about the future growth of the market, especially in emerging areas as buyers are preferring to own homes. We are quite upbeat that the market will pick up in the next quarter onwards,” said Mohta, Chairman, Merlin Group.

Sales drop

The latest Anarock data found that the year’s first quarter saw sales drop of 28 per cent across top seven cities in India against the same period in 2024. Around 93,280 residential units were sold in Q1 2025 in the top seven cities, in sharp contrast to all-time high sales of over 1.30 lakh units in Q1 2024.

New launches across these cities remained above the one lakh mark but saw a 10 per cent yearly decline, from as many as 1,10,865 units in Q1 2024 to around 1,00,020 units in Q1 2025.

“Rising housing prices and global headwinds like ongoing geopolitical tensions and a weak global economy have taken their toll on India’s residential market activity. These factors cascaded down into the housing market in Q1 2025,” Puri pointed out.

Published on March 27, 2025