Covid-19 pandemic: Sales of large apartments rise as WFH continues

Of the total sales of 58,300 units in top seven cities in Q12021, sales of homes priced over Rs 1.5 cr comprised 9% share

Sale of large apartments — those which have three bed rooms (3BHK) and above — have caught up in the top cities of the country as people continued to work from home (WFH) due to the pandemic, using part of their houses as workplaces.

Sale of such apartments has gone up 19 per cent in the first quarter of this calendar year on a yearly basis, according to PropEquity, a real estate-focused data analytics firm. What is interesting is that the growth in such apartments was just 5 per cent in Q4 of 2020.

Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has seen the highest growth in sale of such apartments at 53 per cent in Q1 of this calendar year, followed by Chennai and Pune at 43 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively.

Maharashtra cut stamp duty on property transactions up to March 31 this year which could have boosted the sale of large apartments in MMR and Pune, said Sameer Jasuja, founder and managing director (MD) of PropEquity.  

Only Kolkata has seen a drop in sales of large apartments at 12 per cent in the first quarter. “Q1 of 2021 was showing signs of recovery and saw a performance better than Q1 of 2020. Sales of 3BHK and higher size apartments increased by almost 19 per cent, owing to change in WFH policies,” said Jasuja.

Niranjan Hiranandani, MD of Hiranandani Communities, said: “Obviously, there were higher sales (for the company) in Q1 of 2021 as markets opened out and stamp duty was reduced. Post Covid, people wanted better quality homes and opted for larger homes due to work from home,” said Hiranandani. He said the company's sale of large apartments has grown 30 per cent in the March quarter of the year.

Sanjay Dutt, MD of Tata Realty & Infrastructure, said the company's sale of larger flats has grown by over 20 per cent in the last quarter. “WFH has added demand for larger units," he said.

Even in value terms, those apartments, which are priced higher, have picked up, data culled by Anarock Research showed.

Of the total Q1 (2021) sales of about 58,300 units across all categories in the top seven cities, sales of homes priced more than Rs 1.5 crore, comprising 9 per cent share. Back in Q1 of 2020, of the total 45,200 units sold in top cities, luxury sales comprised just six per cent share.

The year 2020 saw total housing sales of about 138,000 units across the top seven cities. Of this, nearly 6 per cent was in the luxury segment, priced Rs 1.5 crore onwards. In comparison with pre-Covid year 2019, the share of luxury housing sales was similar at around 7 per cent.

“Owing to developer discounts and low impact of the pandemic on this buyer-class, luxury sales did fairly well in Q1 this year compared to the same period last year. This is because of the growing preference for bigger homes. One of the key features of a luxury home is its expansive size, and amid the WFH option during the pandemic, we saw many homebuyers upgrade to bigger spaces. They wanted bigger sized homes in order to accommodate their new needs. This helped boost luxury sales,” said Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Property Consultants. This category also scores high with the non-resident Indians due to the depreciating rupee translating into greater buying power, Puri said.

Undertaking activities such as work, education of children, and recreation activities at home have come as key determining factors to change house buyer perception and translated into an increased demand for bigger and better homes, said Shishir Baijal, chairman and MD of Knight Frank India. He added, “From the developer point of view too, while a half room, a study room or a balcony does not increase the product cost significantly, it does increase the marketability of the project in the current situation.”