Housing sales sink; will prices come down?

Housing sales fell by about 30 per cent last year in seven major cities due to costlier flats and higher interest rate, says property consultant CBRE.

Housing supply in the seven cities -- Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, also declined by about 25 per cent in 2014 as against the previous year.

"Residential sales declined by approximately 30 per cent y-o-y by the end of 2014 in the seven leading cities of the country, largely due to high price points, sticky interest rates and cautious buyer sentiments," CBRE South Asia CMD Anshuman Magazine said in a statement.

The decline was particularly steep in the National Capital Region, he said, adding that the slowdown was reported in the premium as well as the high-end/mid-end housing segments.

The general slackness in residential sales was primarily triggered by the Affordability Index going down in certain cities, he noted.

"Housing sales remained muted even during the festive season, as a cautious buyer sentiment rode over discounts and attractive marketing offers. This is perhaps a signal that prevailing high property prices need to be rationalized in tune with average per capita income rates of Indian home buyers," Magazine observed.

Keeping in mind subdued end-user/investor sentiments, CBRE report said that many developers in major markets abstained from launching new projects, and instead directed their focus towards reducing the existing inventory pile-up.

"Consequently, new supply addition declined by approximately 25 per cent y-o-y, with a strong rationalisation reported during the second half of the year. This was particularly prevalent in the markets of Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune," the consultant said.