Housing sales dip 57% year-on-year in Q2 in 8 cities; demand up 85% from Q1

Real estate brokerage firm PropTiger on Wednesday reported 57 per cent year-on-year decline in housing sales across eight major cities at 35,132 units due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but said sales have recovered significantly from the previous quarter.

During July-September 2019, sales of residential properties across eight cities stood at 81,886 units.

However, September quarter sales rose 85 per cent from the April-June quarter on the back of pent-up demand following the nationwide lockdown, according to the Real Insight Q3 2020 report released by News Corp-backed PropTiger through video conference.

The eight cities tracked by PropTiger are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune.

"We are beginning to see green shoots all across the economy including the residential sector. Although sales and launches have declined year-on-year, but the demand and supply have gone up significantly from the April-June quarter," PropTiger and Housing.com CEO Dhruv Agarwala told reporters.

He termed the current festival season as a crucial period for the real estate sector which will determine the demand outlook for the next 12 months.

With housing prices remaining stable during the last five years and interest rates on home loans at 15 year low, Agarwala expressed confidence that sales would rise significantly during the current quarter.

The discounts and freebies offered by developers during the festive season would also aid in driving demand, he said.

Agarwala noted that housing sales in the MMR and Pune have revived during the July-September quarter because of reduction in stamp duty by the Maharashtra government.

He suggested other States to follow suit and cut stamp duty on property registration.

"Consumers continue to perceive real-estate as the most stable asset and a number of them are looking to upgrade their homes as working from home is likely to continue," said Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan.com & PropTiger.

On supply, Ankita Sood, Head of Research at PropTiger and Housing.com, said the new units launched in July-September stood at 19,865 units across eight cities, registering a decline of 66 per cent from the year-ago period.

However, on a quarterly comparison, new supply registered a growth of 58 per cent, she added.

According to the data, housing sales in Ahmedabad fell 48 per cent in July-September period to 3,339 units, from 6,472 units in the year-ago period.

Bengaluru saw 50 per cent decline in sales at 4,825 units from 9,613 units, while the NCR witnessed 39 per cent dip to 4,427 units from 7,293 units.

Housing sales in Chennai fell 40 per cent to 2,317 units from 3,831 units. The demand in Hyderabad decreased 57 per cent to 3,260 units from 7,663 units.

Kolkata saw 24 per cent fall to 2,479 units from 3,277 units.

Housing sales in the MMR declined 72 per cent to 7,378 units during July-September period from 26,466 units in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Pune saw 59 per cent dip in sales of residential properties to 7,107 units in the third quarter of 2020 calendar year from 17,271 units in the year-ago period.

As per the data for January-September 2020 compared with the same period last year, housing sales across eight cities dropped 54 per cent to 123,725 units from 2,67,333 units.

In Ahmedabad, housing sales declined 54 per cent from 9,031 units from 19,751 units.

Bengaluru saw 48 per cent fall in demand to 15,798 units from 30,594 units, while the NCR witnessed 58 per cent dip to 11,724 units from 27,762 units.

Housing sales in Chennai declined to 7,272 units from 12,921 units. The demand in Hyderabad decreased to 9,913 units from 24,963 units.

Kolkata reported a 51 per cent fall in housing sales to 6,543 units from 13,235 units.

The MMR witnessed a 57 per cent decline in housing sales to 35,906 units from 84,087 units, while Pune saw 49 per cent demand contraction during January-September 2020 to 27,538 units from 54,020 units in the corresponding period of the previous year.