Chennai only city among seven key locations to see drop in home sales in Q3

Housing sales jumped over two-fold at 32,358 units during July-September period across seven major cities as demand bounced back with unlocking of economic activities and lower COVID infections, according to property consultant JLL India.

Sales of residential properties stood at 14,415 units in the year-ago period and 19,635 units in the previous quarter.

JLL India released its Residential Market Update Q3 2021, that tracks housing sales data of seven cities - Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

According to the city-wise data for Q3, 2021, housing sales in Bengaluru increased to 5,100 units during July-September 2021 from 1,742 units in the corresponding period of the previous year. Chennai witnessed fall in housing sales to 1,500 units from 1,570 units. Among seven cities, only Chennai registered a year-on-year fall in sales during the third quarter of 2021 calendar year.

JLL India said residential sales during January — September 2021 increased by 47 per cent to 77,576 units from 52,619 units in the year-ago period. “This implies the second wave had limited impact on sales in the first three quarters of 2021,” JLL said.

“Sales got a boost from many factors including lower COVID-19 cases in Q3 backed by robust vaccination drive which led to cautious unlocking of the economy in various states,” it added.

Unsold inventory in Q3 2021 remained almost stable at nearly 4.78 lakh units when compared to Q2 2021 as demand and supply dynamics remained steady.

An assessment of years to sell (YTS) reveals the expected time to liquidate this stock has increased marginally from 5.2 years in Q2 2021 to 5.3 years in Q3 2021, the consultant said.

Meanwhile, Knight Frank India, launched its quarterly report - India Real Estate Update - Q3 2021; which cited that Chennai registered 115 pc rise in office space transactions to 0.15 mn sq m (1.6 mn sq ft) and 258 pc rise in new completions to 0.02mn sqm (0.2 mn sq ft) in Q3 2021. The cumulative office transactions for the first nine months of 2021 were reported to be at 0.09 mn sq m (2.8 mn sq ft). Chennai’s residential sales and new launches witnessed growth of 17 pc and 49 pc YoY, respectively in Q3 2021. The city recorded sales of 3,610 residential units and launches of 3,795 residential units were launched during this period. Weighted average prices in Chennai market remained stable during the quarter.

“As vaccination gathers pace and companies gradually decide to bring back their workforce to offices, the demand for commercial assets should gather traction going forward” said Shishir Baijal, CMD, Knight Frank India.