Housing sales up 92% in Q2; breach pre-COVID level

Housing demand has breached pre-COVID levels with 92 per cent year-on-year growth in sales during July-September period units across eight major cities, mainly on the back of stable prices, very low mortgage rates, property consultant Knight Frank India said on Monday.

Releasing its India Real Estate Update for Q3 (July-September quarter) of the 2021 calendar year, the consultant reported that housing sales increased to 64,010 units from 33,404 units in the same period last year. In the previous April-June quarter, 27,453 residential units were sold.

"The total residential sales of the top eight markets under review during Q3 2021, reached 104 per cent of 2019 quarterly average," the consultant said, adding that sales have breached pre-COVID levels.

Addressing a video conference, Knight Frank India chairman and managing director Shishir Baijal attributed "stable housing prices, historically low-interest rates on home loans and changing attitude of customers towards homeownership" for the sharp recovery in housing sales.

Rajani Sinha, chief economist, and national director- Research, Knight Frank India said, "Stamp duty cuts were a significant intervention applied by several state governments to spark a sharp recovery in sales volumes.

"These measures have convinced the fence-sitters to make the home buying decision."

With the upcoming festive season, Baijal said the market is gearing up for new project launches and consumers are likely to reciprocate.

"While financial stress remains a significant factor for developers across markets, homebuyers' preference for grade A developers and their access to cheaper credit has positioned them well in this recovering market," he added.

Baijal said the market seems to have factored in the very low likelihood of a complete lockdown as was seen last year due to the ample availability of the COVID vaccine.

According to the latest data for Q3, 2021, housing sales in Mumbai more than doubled to 15,942 units during the July-September period from 7,635 units in the same quarter last year.

The Delhi-NCR market witnessed 48 per cent growth in sales to 9,101 units from 6,147 units.

Housing sales in Bengaluru jumped over two-fold to 11,337 units from 4912 units, while demand in Pune grew by 94 per cent to 9,565 units from 4,918 units.

Chennai saw a 17 per cent rise in sales to 3,610 units from 3,085 units.

The sales of residential properties in Hyderabad were up more than three times to  5,987 units from 1,609 units, while Kolkata saw a 75 per cent increase in demand to  6,861 units from 3,921 units.

Housing sales in Ahmedabad went up by 37 per cent to 1,607 units in July-September 2021 from 1,176 units in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Knight Frank India, in its report, also mentioned that the share of sales in the ticket size Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore grew to 35 per cent in Q3, 2021 compared to 32 per cent a year ago.

This can be attributed to the homebuyers' need to upgrade to larger living spaces with better amenities.

The share of home sales in the under Rs 50 lakh ticket size category dropped to 43 per cent in Q3 2021 from 45 per cent a year ago, as the income disruptions caused by the pandemic were more keenly felt by the lower-income demographic, it added.

Weighted average prices across markets remained stable in Q3 2021 and did not decline compared to the preceding quarter.

The Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata markets saw prices increase marginally on a Year-on-Year basis during the quarter.

Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhury/Reuters