Upbeat housing demand to lift realty stocks despite rate hikes: Analysts

While rising interest rates are expected to hamper affordability among buyers, analysts expect the underlying need for homeownership to remain strong, which would buoy housing sales going ahead

After withstanding the pandemic-wrought downtrend, analysts remain optimistic on the road ahead for the realty sector on the back of strong affordability, upbeat demand, and manageable inventory levels. Though the rate-sensitive sector is prone to downside in a hawkish interest rate environment, they expect the low-leveraged realty companies to brave through the rate hike storm in the long term.

In the July-September quarter of 2022, the sales of residential properties across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune rose 41 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 88,234 units, suggested data from ANAROCK. New launches, too, climbed 45 per