480,000 homes worth over Rs 4.5 trillion stuck in top seven cities

Construction work of nearly 4.8 lakh homes worth Rs 4.48 lakh crore are currently stuck or significantly delayed across seven major cities, although builders have completed 37,000 such units so far this year, according to property consultant Anarock.

For its research, Anarock has taken only those housing projects that were launched in 2014 or before across seven cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

As per the data, 36,830 languishing homes were completed in these cities between January 2022 and May 2022.

At the end of May 2022, Anarock said that 4,79,940 units worth Rs 4,48,129 crore were stuck in various construction stages across these seven cities.

The property markets of these seven cities were saddled with about 5.17 lakh units worth Rs 4.84 lakh crore at the end of 2021 calendar year.

"Developers remain committed to completing their projects and are capitalizing on the ongoing demand for ready-to-move homes," said Prashant Thakur, Senior Director & Head - Research, Anarock.

"What is notable is that they are maintaining momentum despite considerable headwinds from increased input costs, which have gone through the roof in the last five months. The fact that housing demand has remained strong in last two years obviously helps," he said.

Several large developers as well as the SWAMIH fund and state-owned NBCC have taken over stuck/delayed inventories and are completing pending construction works, Thakur said.

Anarock said that the Delhi-NCR and MMR together account for 77 per cent of the total stuck/delayed housing units, while the southern metros Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad have just 9 per cent.

Pune has about 9 per cent share, while Kolkata accounts for 5 per cent.

Among cities, Delhi-NCR saw the maximum completion of 16,750 units during January-May, 2022. Currently, the NCR region has 2,40,610 stuck/delayed units worth Rs 1,81,410 crore.

At the end of December 2021, NCR had 2,57,360 stuck/delayed units worth Rs 1,94,034 crore.

In MMR, 1,28,870 units are stuck/delayed worth Rs 1,84,226 crore. The region had 1,34,170 languishing units worth Rs 1,91,807 crore at the end of the last year.

Around 5,300 units were completed in MMR during January-May this year.

Bengaluru saw completion of 3,960 units during January-May 2022. Currently, the Bengaluru city has 26,030 stuck/delayed units worth Rs 28,072 crore.

At the end of the last year, the IT city had 29,990 stuck/delayed units worth Rs 32,345 crore.

In Hyderabad, 1,710 units were completed during January-May 2022. The city currently has 11,450 stuck/delayed units worth Rs 11,310 crore, while at the end of December 2021, the figure was 13,160 units worth Rs 12,995 crore.

In Chennai, Anarock said that 5,190 units worth Rs 3,731 crore are currently stuck or significantly delayed. At the end of 2022, the city had 8,870 such units.

Chennai currently boasts of the lowest burden of stuck units among the top seven cities, the consultant said.

At the end of May 2022, Pune had 44,250 units worth about Rs 27,533 crore. In 2021-end, the city had 48,100 stuck homes worth Rs 35,220 crore.

As many as 3,850 stuck/delayed units in Pune got completed during January-May this year.

Kolkata saw completion of 1,580 homes during January-May this year. Currently, Kolkata has 23,540 stuck/delayed units worth over Rs 11,847 crore. In 2021-end, there were 25,120 stuck/delayed units worth Rs 12,639 crore.

Homebuyers in Delhi-NCR have been worst affected with several builders including Jaypee Infratech, Unitech, Amrapali, and The 3C Company, defaulting in their promises to deliver their projects.

Anarock, which is one of the leading property consultants in India, achieved a 32 per cent growth in its revenue at Rs 402 crore during the last fiscal year.

Anarock, established by Anuj Puri in April 2017, is majorly into housing brokerage and sells flats on behalf of the developers. It also provides consultancy in other segments of real estate like office, retail, warehousing and data centre.