Mixed bag for Hyderabad realty market in 2017: Knight Frank

Property consultancy Knight Frank India said today 2017 had been a mixed bag for the Hyderabad real estate market with launches in the residential market hitting a "new low", but sales in the residential space were firm.
Knight Frank today launched the eighth edition of its half-yearly report - 'India Real Estate'.
It presents a comprehensive analysis of the residential and office market performance of Hyderabad for the period JulyDecember 2017, a company release said.
"On the residential market front, launches, between July and December, hit a new low, largely due to RERA (Real Estate Regulation and Development Act) and its impending implementation.

"In contrast, sales in the residential sector fared relatively firm though they were marginally down compared to 2016," the release quoted Samson Arthur, Director Hyderabad, Knight Frank, as saying.
Home launches hit an all-time low during July-December 2017 with a meagre 940 units entering the market an 84 per cent drop over the corresponding period in 2016.

Ready-to-move-in houses were higher in demand during the second half of 2017, as consumers seemed to indicate a "resistance to higher costs resulting out of GST burden on under construction apartments", he said.
"Developers shift focus towards affordable homes. Close to 40 per cent of the launches that happened in the city were under Rs 5 million (Rs 50 lakh)," the release said.

As for office market, the July to December period witnessed a new record of office space transaction over a six month period in Hyderabad, Arthur said.
The capital city recorded the highest-ever office transaction (3.34 mnsqft) in a six-month period during (July December 2017). However, it fell by 4 per cent in 2017 on a year on year (YoY) comparison, the release said.
"New completion, however, continued to be under stress as it couldn'tt satisfy the increasing demand. As a result vacancy levels hit a new low and rentals continued to move north at 9 per cent escalation over last year," he added.