Housing sales down by 41 per cent

With the real estate market yet to recover from disruptive reforms such as RERA and GST, new launches in the housing sector fell 41 per cent in 2017 compared to 2016, according to a new report by Knight Frank India. According to the report, released on Wednesday, the new supplies in the housing sector were just one-fourth of 2015-levels. The report surveyed residential supplies in eight cities and office space launches in seven cities and its market performance for the July-December 2017 period. New home launches across the eight key metros of Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad declined to 40,832 units from 68,702 units in the same period in 2016. Housing sales fell six per cent in Delhi-NCR in 2016, the lowest since 2010, at 37,653 units while prices fell by two per cent due to demand slowdown. During the second half of 2017, Hyderabad recorded the steepest fall at 84 per cent as it was going through a correction phase. However, the city witnessed an increase in office leasing in the second half of 2017. Traditionally, an increase in absorption of office space leads to five-fold increase in residential space. Though several companies ranging from globally reputed MNCs to start-ups are absorbing office space in the city leading to new jobs and demand for homes, builders are exercising caution in launching new projects,” said K Sreedhar Reddy, treasurer, Telangana Real Estate Developers Association. The report also highlighted that the share of affordable homes among new projects rose from 53 per cent in 2016 to 83 per cent in 2017.