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Anticipation of a sales pick-up and fast-tracking of approvals have led to a 43 per cent increase in new residential unit launches across eight major cities of India in the first quarter of this calendar year, according to the latest report by Cushman & Wakefield.
The new residential units launched in this quarter stood at 55,438 against 38,898 units launched in the previous quarter.
Sanjay Dutt, Executive Managing Director, South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield, said: “Developers have taken a conscious decision to launch projects in the first quarter of 2014 as they anticipate sales to improve this year in the second half foreseeing economic stability that will most likely prompt purchase decisions from end users.”
“Moreover, faster environmental clearances and approvals have enabled developers to launch their projects in this quarter. However, as concerns about the inflationary trends in the economy and an expected adverse impact of the El Nino remain, we believe that a cautious approach needs to be maintained for residential markets that are not primarily driven by end-user demand,” he added.
Of the eight cities surveyed in the report, Bangalore recorded the largest number of units launched at 16,838 units, an increase of 22 per cent from the previous quarter, while NCR saw the sharpest decline in launches at 6,555 units, an 18 per cent drop sequentially.
The luxury segment of residential units witnessed the highest quarter-on-quarter rise of 123 per cent in Q1 2014, while the largest quantum of launches in residential units was in the mid-end segment at 40,591 housing unit launches, an increase of over 90 per cent over the previous quarter.
The sharpest percentage drop was in the launches of high-end units which declined by 38 per cent to around 6,086 units with largest number of units being launched in Mumbai.
However, going forward, Dutt believes there is hope of an improvement in industry sentiment.
“After the elections the industry and buyers are eagerly looking forward to some positive policy changes to boost the housing sector by the new government that emerges,” he added.
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