Sales fall 17 per cent in 2017

Housing sales dropped 17 per cent during 2017 in nine major cities of the country, owing to demand slowdown and impact of a new realty law, according to a report by realty portal PropTiger. 2,18,500 units sold last year in nine cities — Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad — against 2,63,500 units in 2016. 43 per cent fall in launches to 1,63,573 units in 2017, compared with 2,88,748 units in the previous year. # Drop in sales is mainly due to drop in new launches as 32 per cent of sales in 2016 was contributed  by projects launched in 2016 itself. This ratio came down to 24per cent in 2017 CITY-WISE SALES # Gurgaon and Hyderabad were the only two cities that witnessed increase in sales by 27 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. The other seven cities saw decline in the range of 3 per cent to 33per cent. # Ahmedabad saw the maximum decline by 33 per cent to 12,000 units, followed by Pune 32 per cent to 34,000 units, Noida 30 per cent to 16,000 units and Bengaluru 23 per cent to 31,500 units. # Kolkata witnessed 15 per cent fall in housing sales to 14,500 units in 2017, while in Mumbai, bookings dropped 10 per cent to 60,000 units. Chennai saw marginal dip of 3 per cent to 15,500 units. FALL IN LAUNCHES # Sharp fall in new launches helped in reduction in the number of unsold housing units in 2017 by 7 per cent to 7,25,828 units in these nine cities, of which Mumbai and Pune alone contribute about 4 lakh units. # According to a Knight Frank India report, housing sales declined 7 per cent and home launches fell 41 per cent during last year in eight top cities. Cushman & Wakefield reported 35 per cent fall in launches.