Home sales up YoY despite prices increasing by 2-7 per cent

NEW DELHI Home sales continued their good-run in the just ended January to March quarter, with estimates pegging numbers anywhere between 72,000 and 99,000 units, a y-o-y growth of 10 to 40 per cent.

The increase in sales came despite the Covid third wave and price rise of around 2 – 7 per cent.

Premium properties (priced above ₹1 crore) saw higher offtake, accounting for one out of every four homes sold during the quarter.

“Healthy and sustained homebuyer activity should pave the way for gradual price increases and enable them to tide over the rise in costs of critical inputs like cement and steel,” Shishir Baijal, Chairman & Managing Director, Knight Frank India, said.

Improving Sales

Property consultant Anarock pegged homes sales (across seven key cities – Delhi NCR, Mumbai MMR, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Ahmedabad ) at 99,550 units for the January–March; while Knight Frank put it out at 78,627. PropTiger (part of REA India, which owns Housing.com), said, 70,623 units were sold during the period.

New project launches have also increased around 4-43 per cent between 78,000 and 90,000 units with MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region), Hyderabad, Pune, and Bengaluru, together accounting for the major chunk or 82 per cent of the supply addition, say some analysts.

Mumbai reported close to 22,000 units being sold; while Delhi saw over 15,000 units during the quarter.

Premium Homes

Homes priced above ₹1 crore accounted for 25 per cent of the total sales in January-March, against 18 per cent in the year-ago-period.

On the other hand, homes priced between ₹50 lakh and ₹1 crore, saw their share drop to 35 per cent (from 40 per cent in the year-ago-period).

Homes in the sub-₹50 lakh price range, continued to account for around 41 per cent of the sales (near stagnancy on a y-o-y basis).

According to Knight Frank’s research, prices shot up the most in Bengaluru at 7 per cent y-o-y; followed by Pune and Mumbai at 5 per cent and 4 per cent y-o-y respectively during the period under review.

Unsold inventory

Unsold inventory saw a 2 per cent drop y-o-y to 6.28 lakh units (6.42 lakh), analysts say.

“Inventory overhang – the estimated period builders are likely to take to sell off their unsold stock – has declined to 42 months as against 47 months from a year ago period, primarily because of higher demand for housing,” PropTiger said in a report.

Published on


April 05, 2022