Housing sales up 21%, new supply down 40% in January-March: Report

Housing sales increased by 21 per cent while new supply declined 40 per cent year-on-year during January-March 2021 across seven major cities, according to data analytic firm PropEquity.

Housing demand in the April-June quarter is likely to be sluggish due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sales or absorption of housing units rose by 21 per cent across seven cities in the first quarter of the 2021 calendar year to 1,05,183 units as against 87,236 units in the year-ago period.

However, the new supply or launches of housing units fell 40 per cent to 59,737 units from 1,00,343 units.

Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Delhi-NCR and Pune saw a rise in housing sales, while Kolkata slipped by 20 per cent.

Samir Jasuja, founder and MD at PropEquity, said the first quarter of this calendar year was relatively better for Indian realty as compared to the last year.

"There was higher demand in ready to move in units and the projects nearing completion. However, the second wave of COVID will lead to muted demand going forward," he said.

Jasuja expects sales to pick up after the end of the second wave of COVID.

According to the data, housing sales in Bengaluru rose 13 per cent to 12,262 units in January-March 2021 from 10,878 units in the year-ago period.

Chennai saw a 29 per cent rise in sales at 5,055 units from 3,930 units, while Hyderabad witnessed a 16 per cent rise in demand to 10,964 units from 9,477 units.

In Maharashtra, housing sales in MMR grew 26 per cent to 41,323 units from 32,886 units, while Pune registered 31 per cent growth in demand at 25,252 units compared to 19,221 units.

In the Delhi-NCR market, sales rose 6 per cent to 6,644 units as against 6,239 units.

However, housing sales in Kolkata dipped 20 per cent to 3,682 units in January-March 2021 from 4,605 units a year ago.

Last month, housing brokerage firm PropTiger reported a marginal 5 per cent year-on-year decline in housing sales during January-March 2021 across eight big cities.

Property consultant Anarock said sales grew 29 per cent during January-March this year across major cities.

PropEquity, an online real estate data and analytics platform, said it covers over 1,18,010 projects of 34,217 developers across 44 cities.

The current COVID wave has hit the sector when Indian real estate housing demand was on the growth trajectory in Q1 of 2021," said Ankush Kaul, President (Sales & Marketing) Ambience Group.

He believes that once the current COVID spread in India stabilises, the demand will again grow.