Housing sales rise by 23% in the first 5 months of 2021: Report

                Housing sales rose by 23% across the top 7 cities in India in the first five months of 2021 to 1,32,818 units versus 1,08,199 units in the first five months of 2020.

Housing sales rose by 23% across the top 7 cities in India in the first five months of 2021 to 1,32,818 units versus 1,08,199 units in the first five months of 2020, and a majority of the 
sales happened till April 15, according to a report released by PropEquity.

As per the report, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, MMR and Pune are the cities where home sales witnessed a growth in the first five months of 2021 versus the first five months of 
2020 at 16%, 40%, 39%, 29% and 34%, respectively. Only Kolkata and NCR witnessed a downfall of 11% and 20%, respectively, in the housing sales during the same period.

Sales in NCR were greatly impacted as the National Capital faced a major brunt of the second COVID wave in which the city went to a standstill to tackle the health emergency. This 
was followed by a stringent lockdown, further impacting the housing sales.

The new supply or launches of housing units decreased by 24% in the same period to 86,746 units from 1,13,699 units as developers were clearing the earlier stock, resizing home 
offerings and waiting for the economy to improve.

Chennai and NCR are the cities where new launches witnessed a growth in the first five months of 2021 versus the first five months of 2020 at 20% and 50%, respectively, whereas 
Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, MMR and Pune witnessed a downfall of 35%, 28%, 28%, 31% & 23%, respectively, in home sales during the same period.

Commenting on the same, Samir Jasuja, founder and managing director at PropEquity, said, “India witnessed the worst COVID wave in the months of April and May, which drastically 
stopped almost all real estate activities across the major cities. Fortunately, the worst is behind us as the infection and COVID-related deaths have fallen significantly, leading the major 
cities to relax Covid-related restrictions. The vaccination drive has also picked up pace and hopefully there will be limited impact from the third wave. We expect home sales to bounce 
back faster as the COVID recovery has been at a rapid pace.”

“2020 was a difficult year for the real estate sector in India. This year, however, began with a solid recovery across segments and markets, but the sudden COVID wave again 
impacted the momentum due to the lockdown. As restrictions lifted around the beginning of June, we are now again witnessing housing sales, new launches and businesses in general 
slowly getting back on track. We expect sales to further improve going ahead in the next quarter for projects that are being offered by fundamentally strong developers,” said Ankush 
Kaul, President (Sales & Marketing), Ambience Group.

Cities Snapshot:

# Bengaluru: India’s IT capital saw a rise of 16% in home sales in Jan to May 2021 at 15,364. New Launches decreased by 35% at 10,849 units.

# Chennai: Chennai saw a 40% increase in home sales in the first five months of 2021 at 6,518 and new launches increased by 20% to 5,338 units.

# Hyderabad: Home sales witnessed an increase of 39% in Jan-May 2021 at 14,959 units while new launches fell by 28% to 11630 units.

# Kolkata: Surprisingly, Kolkata saw a decrease of 11% in home sales in the first five months of 2021 at 4,673 units with new launches falling by 28% to 2,391 units.

# MMR: The City of Dreams saw an increase of 29% in home sales in the first five months of 2021 at 51,040 units, whereas new launches fell by 31% to 30,290 units.

# NCR: NCR saw a decrease of 20% in home sales in the first five months of 2021 at 9,106 units with new launches increasing by 50% to 7,815 units.

# Pune: Pune witnessed a rise of 34% in sales or absorption and a downfall of 23% in new launches at 18,433 units in the first five months of 2021.

Source: Financial Express