Housing sales drop 35% in 7 cities in Q2

Housing sales across seven major cities in the country fell 35 per cent year-on-year to 50,983 units during the July-September period even as the demand recovered post lockdown, according to data analytics firm PropEquity.

Sales stood at 78,472 units in the year-ago period in seven cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

On sequential basis, however, sales jumped over two-fold from 24,936 units in the April-June quarter of this year, PropEquity said.

Last week, property consultant Anarock reported 46 per cent year-on-year (YoY) drop in sales of residential properties during July-September quarter at 29,520 units in these seven cities.

"The Indian real estate sector is showing some recovery as many projects were launched in the last quarter; and with various schemes and offers, developers were able to clear significant inventory," PropEquity founder and MD Samir Jasuja said.

"As we move into the festive season, we forecast this recovery to continue with more offers, discounts and attractive payments schemes to attract customers,” Jasuja added.

According to the PropEquity data, housing sales declined in all seven cities during July-September 2020 compared to same period last year.

In Bengaluru, sales fell 44 per cent to 6,098 units from 10,878 units.

Chennai saw 36 per cent fall in sales at 2,403 units during July-September quarter from 3,749 units in the year-ago period.

Sales of residential properties went down by 32 per cent in Hyderabad at 4,677 units from 6,924 units.

Kolkata witnessed 44 per cent decline in sales to 2,239 units during July-September from 4,023 units in the year-ago period.

Housing sales in MMR dipped 30 per cent to 16,652 units from 23,719 units, while demand fell 23 per cent in the NCR to 9,375 units from 12,237 units.

In Pune, sales decreased 44 per cent to 9,539 units during July-September 2020 from 16,942 units in the same period last year.

PropEquity, which is owned and operated by P E Analytics, is an online real estate data and analytics platform covering over 1,18,010 projects of 34,217 developers across 44 cities.

Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters