Housing sales in top 7 cities breach pre-Covid19 levels in Q1

Housing sales in top seven cities has made an impressive comeback and surge 29 percent and new launches up by 51 percent year-on-year (YoY) in first quarter calendar 2021 and breaches pre-covid19 levels.

As per property consultant Anarock’s data in Q1 as many as 58,290 homes were sold in the top seven cities in Q1 2021 in comparison to 45,200 units in Q1 2020 – effectively breaching pre-Covid levels. While new launches too were up at 62,130 units in Q1 2021, against 41,220 units in Q1 2020.

“Demand boosters like stamp duty cuts, further reductions in home loan rates by most banks (to 6.70 percent) and ongoing developer discounts and offers helped the residential sector stage a convincing comeback in Q1 2021. Egged on by buoyant sales and enthusiastic consumer sentiment in the October-December period, developers launched several new projects in this quarter - with some spill-over from the pandemic-dampened 2020 pipeline,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman – Anarock Property Consultants.

“MMR and Pune were the most active in this quarter since the limited-period stamp duty cuts and other sops and discounts substantially reduced acquisition cost,” added Puri. He further said “MMR’s homebuyers have responded proactively to the bottomed-out property prices in the country’s most expensive real estate market. This is adequately vouchsafed by the significant rise in property registrations in Mumbai in the first two months of the year.”

Overall Sales

Around 58,290 units were sold in Q1 2021 – a yearly increase of 29 percent over Q1 2020. NCR, MMR, Bengaluru, and Pune together accounted for 83 percent of the sales in the quarter.

Hyderabad recorded the maximum rise in sales in this quarter among the top cities. City sales increased by 64 percent - from 2,680 units in Q1 2020 to about 4,400 units in Q1 2021.

MMR and Pune also saw significantly boosted sales in this quarter when compared to other top cities. Sales in MMR and Pune increased by 46 percent and 47 percent respectively and stood at about 20,350 and 10,550 units, respectively.

In Chennai, about 2,850 units were sold - an increase of 30 percent over Q1 2020.

In Kolkata and NCR, housing sales increased by 10 percent and 8 percent respectively over Q1 2020, with about 2,680 units, and 8,790 units, respectively.

In Bengaluru, about 8,670 units were sold as compared to 8,630 units sold in Q1 2020.

New Launches

The top seven cities saw around 62,130 new homes launched in Q1 2021 (as opposed to 41,220 units in Q1 2020) - a significant increase of 51 percent YoY. The key cities contributing to new unit launches in Q1 2021 were MMR, Hyderabad, Pune, and Bengaluru, together accounting for 79 percent of supply addition.

In MMR, about 14,820 units were launched – a significant increase of nearly 41 percent over Q1 2020. Over 66 percent of the new supply was added in the sub Rs 80 lakh budget range.

Bengaluru added about 7,690 units in Q1 2021, a yearly decrease of 11 percent over Q1 2020. Over 68 percent of the new supply was added in the sub Rs 40 lakh to rs 1.5 crore price bracket.

Pune added a new supply of about 13,820 units in Q1 2021, compared to 7,790 units in Q1 2020 - a massive rise of 77 percent. Over 60 percent of the new supply was added in the sub Rs 40 lakh to Rs 80 lakh budget segment.

NCR added about 6,750 units in Q1 2021, a YoY increase of 9 percent. About 52 percent of the new supply was in the affordable segment.

Hyderabad recorded a massive spike of 273 percent in new supply from the previous year, with about 12,620 units launched in Q1 2021.

Chennai added about 4,620 units in Q1 2021, a YoY increase of 25 percent over Q1 2020.

Kolkata added about 1,810 units in Q1 2021, an increase of 66 percent over Q1 2020. About 41 percent of the new supply was in the affordable segment.