The real estate sector in India is seeing a major revival of late with sales volumes going up and inventory levels declining overall as per several reports. Studies indicate that real estate sales volumes have increased by a handsome 24% in the quarter between April and June 2018 as compared to the quarter before this. This increase comes over and above the jump of 12% seen in the quarter between January and March 2018 as compared to the period between October and December 2017. This indicates a steady recovery in real estate sales volumes across the country.
Reports state that the unsold unit tally in the top 7 cities in the country came down from 711, 000 by the end of March 2018 to 700, 000 by the end of June 2018. The higher sales volumes are also spurring the announcement of several new projects by top real estate developers and brands. 60, 800 units were approximately sold between April and June 2018 across the top 7 Indian cities as compared to 49, 200 units and 43, 800 units sold in the preceding two quarters respectively.
All the major markets have shown steady improvement with the exception of Chennai which is still taking some time to settle down as per reports. 15, 200 units were sold in the last quarter for the Mumbai region as compared to 12, 300 in the quarter before that. Bangalore also saw 14, 600 units being sold in the last quarter as compared to 11, 500 units in sales for the quarter before that. Sales volumes also went up in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Pune. There is better buyer sentiment due to greater transparency and factors like RERA. IT professionals are also more confident about real estate purchases at the moment as per studies and this is reflecting on market performance. Bangalore is witnessing good real estate sales volumes due to a revival of interest from prospective buyers in the IT and ITeS sectors.
Real estate developers in the country are now focusing on clearing out inventory which is unsold and are providing various discounts, schemes and freebies to buyers as a result. 26, 300 new units were launched in the quarter between October and December 2017 while 50, 100 new units were launched in the quarter between April and June 2018 as per reports.
Apartments priced lower than Rs. 40 lakhs accounted for a whopping 1/3rd of newly launched projects between January and March 2018 while they accounted for almost 45% of the newly launched projects between April and June 2018. The Government’s emphasis on affordable housing and interest subsidies under the PMAY scheme has attracted several buyers in this category. Prices have increased by approximately 1% in India’s top 5 cities while they have remained on the flatter side in Kolkata and Chennai.
