Reflecting the rebounding real estate market across the top cities, the Jul-Sep quarter of 2021 fared quite well, restoring the faith of home buyers as well as hesitant builders. Aligning with the real estate growth anticipated, new launches recorded a whopping growth of about 70% across the top six cities compared to the previous quarter and a significant surge in sales. While keeping up its good run from the previous quarters, MMR continued to record the highest number of new launches (about 30% of the total share) in the third quarter, Hyderabad was a close second with 23% of the total share.
Residential preferences of home buyers continued to be a little skewed towards mid and upper mid housing segments (Rs 30-60 Lakhs and Rs 60-100 Lakhs) in major cities, a development that was deeply ingrained in the growing need for home ownership gaining prominence across the top cities. In Q3, 2021, though larger home configurations attracted a healthy share of online searches, as of now this inclination seems largely driven by aspirations and might take a few more months to convert into actual sales.
What were the home buyers’ preferences in the third quarter of 2021?
Retaining its position of being the “city of dreams” for every aspiring home buyer, MMR attracted about 33% of the total online searches, followed by Hyderabad accounting for 20% of the total share. The residential demand in MMR, despite the skyrocketing prices, continues to dominate home search trends, while Hyderabad also emerged as a preferred city by notably contributing to new launches as well online search trends.
Similar to the previous quarter, a growing number of home buyers looked for spacious units as 36% of the searches were recorded for unit type 3BHK and above. In Q3, 2021, demand for luxury units (above 4000 Sq. Ft.) emerged more prominently in the southern cities namely Bengaluru and Hyderabad contributing about 60% towards the total pie, delineating the scope of an upsurge in demand for the luxury housing segment for these IT/tech sector-driven cities. However, at a pan India level smaller units (less than 1000 Sq. Ft. and 1000-2000 Sq. Ft.) continued to drive the major portion of the online searches across the top six cities.
With more than 60% of the online searches for semi-furnished units in Bengaluru, Gurugram, and Noida, more home buyers in these cities appear to be on the lookout for residential units with at least minimum basic amenities, eschewing the hassle of setting up a home from scratch. As most of the prospective home buyers are millennials, demand for unfurnished units seemed to take a backseat in most of the cities, with semi-furnished units coming to the fore as the most fitting option.
A glimpse of housing market trends in the top cities
For Q3, 2021 major chunk of the new project launches in the top cities were concentrated in the precincts that offered improved infrastructure, excellent connectivity to major locales, and proximity to upcoming IT/tech corridors. These included zones such as North Bengaluru, West Hyderabad, etc.
In cities, where land costs are relatively affordable both developers and home buyers seemed more willing to upgrade to spacious units (2-3 BHK units), reinforcing the gradual shift towards larger living spaces in the residential sector.
However, as far as demand-supply for different budget categories were concerned, most of the cities reiterated pan India trends-where most of the home buyers and developers were interested in the mid and upper mid housing segment.
Read the detailed analysis for each city in our latest residential report titled ‘India Residential Overview: Jul-Sep 2021’. Download the report here.
