Kolkata tops new housing project launches in Q3 with 59% rise: Anarock

The festive season in the Kolkata metropolis has brought joy in residential real estate as it topped in launching of new houses among the major seven cities of the country in the Q3 period of 2018.

"Kolkata saw the launch of nearly 4,050 units. This is a significant rise of 59 per cent from Q2 2018 and an increase of more than 500 per cent over Q3 2017," real estate consultant Anarock said in its latest report.

The top seven cities (NCR, MMR, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad) saw 52,150 new units launched in Q3 2018. This is a low single-digit increase of three per cent over Q2 2018 of 50,600 units.

However, it is a 51 per cent jump in new housing against corresponding Q3 2017. Purchases also rose by 15 per cent this quarter as against Q3 2017.

Mumbai Metropolitian Region (MMR) saw the launch of approximately 19,850 units a rise of 42 per cent from Q2 2018. But, National Capital Region (NCR) contributed only 8 per cent of the new supply with 4,200 units. This marked a slump of 50 per cent of units from the previous quarter.

Low-budget range housing continues to keep the momentum going. This segment saw a nearly 65 per cent increase in supply in Q3 2018 (below Rs 40 lakh) against the same period last year, Anarock said.

While in terms of purchases, there was a slight increase of 9 per cent during Q3 compared to Q2 2018 across the top seven cities. This indicates that even though home buyers sentiments are positive, many continue to wait and watch.

Anarock's Real Estate Consumer Outlook Survey confirms that nearly 61 per cent prospective buyers are looking to buy their property within the next one year. Given this, the festive season may bring a boost to the real estate sector this year.