Housing prices up 7.6% in Q3 last fiscal, says RBI data

Housing prices went up by an average of 7.6 per cent in the three months ended December 2017, with highest appreciation recorded in in Kochi, according to RBI data. The Reserve Bank of India released its quarterly house price index (HPI) for Q3 of 2017-18 fiscal. It is based on transactions data received from housing registration authorities in ten major cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kanpur and Kochi. “The all-India HPI recorded growth of 7.6 per cent on an annual basis (ie, Q3 of 2017-18 over Q3 of 2016-17) as against 7.4 per cent observed in the previous quarter and 8.3 per cent a year ago,” RBI said, adding that the annual growth remained stable. The annual growth in HPI ranged from 0.2 per cent (in Bengaluru) to 26.6 per cent (in Kochi), indicating large divergences in city-wise housing price movements, it added. After Kochi, the maximum rise in housing prices was witnessed in Kanpur at 23.6 per cent, followed by Ahmedabad (17.9 per cent) and Jaipur (16 per cent). Mumbai saw a price rise of 9 per cent, Delhi (6.7 per cent), Kolkata (5.5 per cent), Lucknow (5 per cent) and Chennai (1.87 per cent), according to RBI data. On sequential basis, all-India HPI rose by 2.4 per cent in the October-December period of last fiscal over the previous quarter. “In sequential terms, all cities recorded an increase, with Ahmedabad recording the highest rise (8.8 per cent) and Delhi recording the minimum rise (0.1 per cent),” RBI said.