Bengaluru most preferred residential market in 2015: Study

Fuelled by a marginal increase in housing demand, Bengaluru has emerged as the most preferred residential market with almost 27 percent share in new housing projects in January-June 2015, a study said on Monday.

Delhi National Capital Region and Mumbai follow suit with a share of about 20 percent each, as per 'India Residential Market View - H1 2015' from commercial real estate services (CBRE) India.

Chennai and Hyderabad saw a rise in new project launches, while Delhi NCR and Mumbai saw a dip in the same due to already existing housing inventory and project delays.

The study said that while Chennai and Bangalore saw positive demand for real estate in the residential sector, accounting for more than 45 percent of the total housing sales across leading cities, the Delhi NCR region saw a steep decline.

Mumbai and Hyderabad, meanwhile, noted a slight drop in home buyer interest levels during the first half of the year.

The finding said housing sales and new project launches across India during January-June this year saw a marginal dip of three percent as home buyer demand declined marginally by around two percent compared to the July-December period last year.

Cautious buyer sentiment, high mortgage rates and significant unsold inventory in primary as well as secondary markets were said to be the primary reasons for the dip.

In the period under consideration, mostly new housing projects were launched in the high-mid end segments in and around the fringes of major cities.

Home prices remained largely stable in premium and high-mid end segments in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in the first six months of the current year while Bengaluru saw a rise in prices due to a marginal increase in housing demand.

The finding said west Hyderabad and Pune too witnessed price increase in the range of 2-6 percent due to healthy demand.

"The 'housing for all' initiative, along with revival of major urban infrastructure projects and removal of impediments to land acquisition, can in unison reap rich dividends for the sector in the long term", Anshuman Magazine, chairman and managing director of CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd., said in a statement.