As per several studies and reports, home sales may go up by around 16% in 2018 overall to stand at 2.45 lakh units throughout India’s 7 top cities. There is more demand for housing units in the affordable homes segment which is clearly the market category fuelling maximum demand in recent times. Overall housing supply has increased by a whopping 32% this year to stand at 1.93 lakh homes in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune. Buyers are no longer sitting on the fence as per experts and they have weathered the twin impact of GST and RERA.
The latter has ushered in a new era of transparency and accountability which augurs well for the Indian real estate sector going forward. The new housing supply throughout the country’s top 7 cities may be close to 194, 000 units by end 2018 which is higher than 1, 46, 850 units last year. Affordable housing, as per reports, makes up more than 41% of new housing supply. Home sales may touch close to 2, 50, 000 units in case fourth quarter sales match the third quarter or even more.
Unsold housing stock is now close to 7 lakh units by the end of September 2018 as per several reports. This is lower by 8% as per reports. Average prices of property remained largely unchanged throughout India’s top 7 cities this year. In fact, there was an increase of average prices by roughly 1% to stand at Rs. 5, 545 per sq. ft. In fact, new launches are also going up across many of these cities and this is a direct outcome of growth in the Indian realty market.
Affordable housing continues to be the major growth driver as mentioned along with several Government incentives like the PMAY benefits. These have contributed majorly towards the increase in new housing supply. Most real estate developers are now looking to come up with projects in this segment and this has given several options to prospective buyers. 2019 should be a better year in terms of higher sales volumes and growing demand as forecasted by market experts.
