There has been a drop of 12 per cent in new residential project launches in 2013 as compared to the last year, according to a report by international property consultants Cushman & Wakefield.

Total estimated unit launches were recorded at 172,500 units across eight cities, with Bengaluru recording the largest number of units launched, recording a rise of 15 per cent.

Chennai, on the other hand, saw the sharpest decline – a drop of 39 per cent over the last year. Mumbai saw a rise in the total units launched at 6 per cent, while Kolkata saw a jump at 3 per cent in the total units launched in 2013 over the last year.

However, NCR saw a slump at –33 per cent, Pune registered a 20 per cent decline and Ahmedabad reported five per cent decline in new launches. Mumbai and Delhi together constituted over 65 per cent of the total launches.

Turning cautious Sanjay Dutt, Executive Managing Director, South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield said: “In the current economic scenario, both buyers and developers are taking a cautious approach not only towards residential real estate, but across all asset classes of real estate.

However, given that most aspects of development such as construction cost, development cost, cost of land, time taken for approval, and cost of debt all have been on an upward tangent, developers have not been able to lower cost.”

Meanwhile, luxury unit launches were the lowest and down 72 per cent from last year at 1,132 units, as compared to 4,030 units last year. According to Dutt, one category that has not seen the same enthusiasm despite government backing of external commercial borrowings and other benefits has been the affordable housing sector.

As per the report, affordable housing launches have declined by 25 per cent this year.

“This can be attributed to the issues of acquiring land at preferential rate and the subsequent building cost, which has been restricting,” Dutt added.

manisha.jha@thehindu.co.in

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