Residential launches in Q1 2024 drop 15% YoY across top 8 markets: Report

Bengaluru: Fresh housing supply across the top 8 markets in India fell 15% year-on-year to 69,000 units in the first quarter of calendar 2024, according to a new report released by property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield on Friday.

This comes despite ‘sustained high demand’, per the report, and amid a robust outlook amongst sectoral experts for the Indian real estate market, which has been on a bull run, registering record numbers in 2023.

“Amid steady strong demand, a slight supply rationalisation in one quarter is not an alarming trend. Besides, there appears to be good supply across all segments in the market currently,” Vimal Nadar, who heads research at property consultancy Colliers, underscored, adding that delays in regulatory approvals ahead of the general election could be a probable cause for the dip.

Over 38% of the total launches during the period under review, originated from listed and reputed developers. “This trend has been growing steadily, with listed developers showing consistent year-on-year increase in launches for the past two years (registering an increase of approximately 7-8% from 2022),” the report noted.

In line with the popular trend observed through 2023, the luxury housing bracket accounted for a 34% share in the overall pie of fresh launches during the quarter. The segment’s share has steadily increased from a mere 13-14% in 2019 to more than 30% post 2022, per the report.

“We expect this momentum to continue throughout the coming fiscal year (FY 2024/25) as well,” Shalin Raina, Managing Director, Residential Services, Cushman & Wakefield, said.

Meanwhile the mid-housing segment continued its reign, leading the new supply with a 50% contribution in the January-March period. The affordable housing bracket saw a decline, registering a mere 13% share. 

The report highlighted that developers may be hesitant to invest in the budget housing segment due to potentially lower margins and stricter regulations for claiming incentives, particularly when high-end and luxury, and mid-segments are experiencing high demand.