Lockdown impact: Housing sales plunge 79% in April-June in top 8 cities

Housing sales plunged 79 percent to 19,038 units across eight major cities in April-June, as demand was badly impacted due to the nationwide lockdown to control Covid-19 pandemic, real estate brokerage firm PropTiger said on Tuesday.

Releasing its latest report 'Real Insight: Q2 2020' through video conference, News Corp-backed PropTiger said that sales of residential properties fell 52 percent to 88,593 units across eight cities during January-June period this year.

The cities tracked in the report are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi-NCR (Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Faridabad), MMR (Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane) and Pune.

According to the data, housing sales declined maximum 86 percent 1,099 units in Hyderabad during April-June 2020, as against 8,122 units in the year-ago period.

Mumbai saw 85 percent fall in the second quarter of 2020 to 4,559 units, from 29,635 units in the corresponding period the previous year.

Sales in Ahmedabad dipped 83 percent to 1,181 units in April-June this year, compared to 6,784 units in the same period last year.

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The National Capital Region (NCR) witnessed 81 percent decline in sales to 1,886 units in April-June, over 9,759 units in the year-ago period.

Sales in Kolkata dropped 75 percent to 1,317 units from 5268 units, while demand in Pune fell 74 percent to 4,908 units from 18,581 units during the period under review.

Bengaluru saw 73 percent decline in sales to 2,776 units from 10,251 units, while Chennai witnessed 70 percent fall to 1,312 units from 4,364 units.

"The current pandemic is an unprecedented Black Swan event that is expected to contract growth in the global economy, including that of India. As anticipated, demand was adversely impacted due to economic uncertainty combined with growing unemployment," Mani Rangarajan, Group COO of Housing.com, Makaan.com & PropTiger.com.

Asked about the sales outlook for the full calendar year, he hoped demand to be better in the second half of 2020 but declined to give any estimate.

Ankita Sood, Head of Research at PropTiger, Makaan and Housing.com, said sales were badly impacted during the April-June quarter due to lockdown and economic uncertainties.

Housing demand will only improve going forward, she said.

During January-June 2020, housing sales had declined 57 percent in Ahmedabad to 5,692 units.

Bengaluru saw 48 percent fall in sales to 10,973 units, while the NCR witnessed 64 percent dip in demand to 7,297 units.

Housing sales in Chennai were down 45 percent to 4,955 units.

In Hyderabad, sales were down 62 percent at 6,653 units, while the demand fell 59 percent in Kolkata to 4,064 units.

Mumbai saw 50 percent decline in sales to 28,528 units, while Pune witnessed 44 percent decline to 20,431 units.