Home sales rise, hint at recovery

Mumbai, March 12: In what can be seen as a possible recovery in the housing market, sales improved by 29.3 per cent yearonyear during the April to December period last year, while the time taken to clear the inventory went down to 12 quarters, says a report.

Real estate companies sold 17.26 million sq ft during the nine months, against 13.35 million sq ft in the year- ago period, according to rating agency Icra, which considered a sample entities.

The quarter- to- sell ( QTS) or the time required to sell the available inventory decreased to 12 quarters, compared with 14 at the end of March 2017, primarily driven by a healthy pick- up in sales velocity, it said. The value of the area booked during the nine months also rose to ` 11,651 crore, from ` 9,205 crore in April- December 2016.

According to Shubham Jain, vice- president and size of 11 listed sector head, Icra, the real estate sector, especially the large listed players, appears to be at the cusp of a possible recovery with the QTS improving.

“The pick- up in demand, coupled with the limited new launches, has resulted in an improvement in the QTS, which is being viewed as an early sign of recovery, especially for the organised players gaining market share,” he said.

New launches also dropped to 10.8 million sq ft, against 18.7 million sq ft with the developers focusing more on the execution of the ongoing projects, said Mr Jain.

Further, Icra said that there has been a cautious approach towards new launches, given the muted demand over the last few years.

The report revealed that there has been a 3 per cent decline in collections at ` 9,456 crore in the April to December period last year, compared with ` 9,735 crore over the same period a year ago.