Beating odds, housing realty sees uptrend during Oct-Dec

New Delhi: Residential real-estate sector has recorded significant growth in 2020, a year which was marked by global pandemic, lockdowns and subsequent restrictions. According to a recent report by PropTiger.com, a leading digital real estate advisory firm in the country, new homes' supply and sales showed a significant improvement in the fourth quarter of 2020 (Oct - Dec) owing to factors such as changing preferences of the buyers in major cities.

The company surveyed eight major cities in India namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi NCR (Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad) and Mumbai MMR (Boisar, Dombivli, Mumbai, Mazagaon, Panvel, Thane West), and Pune, to highlight the upwards trend in residential sector.

According to the report, Real Insight Q4 2020, by PropTiger.com, 54,329 new residential units were launched during the three months, amidst the phased easing of restrictions put in place in India. New launches grew by 173 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) 19,865 units that were launched in the eight key markets during the July-September period.

The report also reflected a 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth over the 48,530 new units that were launched in the December quarter in 2019. Signalling a turnaround in the residential real-estate in the southern part of the country - Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad - showed signs of revival, with new launches as well as sales numbers showing an improvement in the October-December period of 2020.

In terms of new launches, the report also shows quarterly increase in the October-December period across markets, except Ahmedabad. Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai were the top three cities in terms of new launches. The spike in supply numbers could be attributed to the increase in home-buying interest in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and also the fact that new launches were muted over the prior three quarters. Some cities like Mumbai and Pune, driven by stamp duty cuts by the Maharashtra government, overall low interest rates, stagnant housing prices and attractive offers by developers.

"While the trends point to a market recovery and positive news, given the imminent launch of a vaccine that will ease the pandemic concerns, our optimism should be cautious. Buyers continue to expect low home loan rates, extension of developer offers and prefer ready-to-move inventory than those under construction," said Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and Proptiger.com, while launching the report.

He added, "We believe that the government should continue to support the sector through moves such as lowering stamp duty, re-evaluating circle rates and increasing tax deduction limit for interest on home loans to ensure that the sector continues to revive. The sector is digitizing at a rapid pace and more than 90 per cent of potential home buyers have moved online to shortlist properties to buy. We have seen a strong growth in online booking throughout 2020,".

Hyderabad leads in new launches forthe fourth quarter standing at 12,720 as compared to 2019 which recorded at 2,410 (Q4). While cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR recorded (new sales) 10,770, 10,070 and 6,100 respectively, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata came last at 4,890, 3,000, 1660 respectively.

In terms of residential space preference, 2 BHK spearheads the market, with 45 per cent of the total sale of 1,82,640; 4 BHK preference was recorded at mere 4 per cent of the total sales of 2020. The survey report suggests that in view of work from home, 47 per cent of (surveyed) potential buyers were looking forlarger homes.