Chennai, Bengaluru Property Prices Fare Better than Delhi, Mumbai

Indian house prices will fall for the first time in at least a decade this year and next as the coronavirus pandemic leads to mass job losses and hammers demand and the economic outlook, a Reuters poll showed. A regional breakdown in the poll showed house prices this year would fall 7.5%, 7.0%, 5.0% and 3.5% in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru, respectively, compared to 7.3%, 7.0%, 3.0% and 3.0% contractions predicted in the June survey. Even before the pandemic struck, house prices had declined nearly 1% during the January-March period from the previous quarter, according to Reserve Bank of India data. That is with consumer inflation averaging 6.67% during that same period. That gloomy job market was likely to hurt demand and already-slowing housing market activity, suggesting a recovery would not come any time soon, according to the Sept. 16-28 Reuters poll of 15 analysts. The poll predicted average house prices to shrink 6.0% this year and 3.0% next year, which would be the first annual fall since records began over a decade ago. That compares to a fall of 5.0% and 3.0% expected in a poll taken three months ago.