Housing Sales in NCR Up 24 Per Cent in Jan-Jun; Demand To Grow in 2021: PropTiger

Housing sales in Delhi-NCR rose 24 per cent year-on-year to 9,016 units during the first six months of this year on lower base and the demand is likely to remain strong during the upcoming festive season, according to brokerage firm PropTiger.

The sales of residential properties stood at 7,297 units in the first half of last year. On sales outlook for the full year in Delhi-NCR, Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger, told reporters, "We expect that there will be a growth in sales numbers during 2021 compared with the last year".

During the entire 2020 calendar year, housing sales in Delhi-NCR, comprising five major markets of Gurugram, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad, stood at 17,789 units. "Housing properties have become very affordable because of historically low interest rates on home loans and fairly stable property prices over the last 5-6 years.

Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has made us realise how important it is to own a house and that too of a certain size conducive for remote work," he said. These factors have kept the housing market resilient in the midst of an unprecedented global health crisis, Rangarajan said.

Ankita Sood, Director-Research at Housing.com and PropTiger, said sales of residential properties in Delhi-NCR went up by 50 per cent year-on-year during April-June this year on a lower base in the year-ago period that saw strict nationwide lockdown to control the pandemic.

In its quarterly report 'Real Insight (Residential) - April-June 2021', PropTiger reported that sales in primary markets of Delhi-NCR increased to 2,828 units during April-June 2021 from 1,886 units in the year-ago period. Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad were the only three cities out of total eight major markets, tracked by PropTiger, that witnessed an increase in sales numbers during April-June.

The remaining five cities -- Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai --saw decline in demand. Delhi-NCR was second only to MMR in terms of housing sales, accounting for 18 per cent in the overall national sales. Mumbai contributed nearly 21 per cent to the overall sales.

Across eight cities, sales were down 16 per cent to 15,968 units in the second quarter of this calendar year from 19,038 units in the same period last year. On a sequential basis, sales were down 76 per cent. On a sequential basis, housing sales in Delhi-NCR declined 54 per cent to 2,828 units during April-June from 6,188 units in the previous quarter.

The demand was almost washed out during April and May because of the devastating impact of the second wave on human lives. Among micro-markets in Delhi-NCR, sales in Gurugram increased to 1,020 units during April-June 2021 from 885 units in the same period last year. Demand was down from 2,946 units in the previous quarter. Housing sales in Greater Noida stood at 521 units, up from 484 units in second quarter of 2020. As many as 1,153 units were sold in the previous quarter.

Noida saw sales of 437 units during April-June this year. Demand stood at 361 units in the year-ago period and 1,132 units in the previous quarter. In Ghaziabad, housing sales rose to 331 units in second quarter of 2021 from 152 units in the corresponding quarter of 2020. Sequentially, demand fell from 801 units.

Faridabad saw a sharp jump in sales to 519 units during April-June this year. Demand stood at 4 units in second quarter last year and 156 units in January-March this year. "Unsold housing stock saw a decline of 7 per cent year-on-year to 1,03,269 units at the end of June quarter on lower supply of new homes coupled with a slow but steady sales velocity. The inventory overhang has increased to 64 months in the second quarter of 2021 from 53 months in the same period last year," PropTiger said. Delhi-NCR continues to have the highest inventory overhang amongst the top-eight cities, it added.

(PTI)