Housing sales rise 71% in 2021, launches up 85%

The year 2021 saw a marked improvement in the property market compared to the pandemicruined 2020. Despite the continued threat of

Covid-19, around 2.37 lakh housing units were launched and an equally strong number of units were sold in 2021. New launches grew an impressive 85 per cent and sales

71 per cent over 2020. Housing sales rose 71 per cent in 2021 with around 2,36,500 units sold, thus reaching 90 per cent of 2019 levels, as per the data from Anarock. Mumbai recorded the highest sales at 76,400 housing units, 72 per cent higher than 44,320 units in 2020.

According to Knight Frank India, Mumbai saw total property sale registrations of 1,11,552 in 2021, 70 per cent higher over 2020 and 45 per cent higher than 2019.

The National Capital Region sold around 40,050 units, up by 73 per cent. Hyderabad saw sales growing 197 per cent, Pune 53 per cent, Bengaluru 33 per cent, Chennai 86 per cent and Kolkata an 83 per cent.

A tremendous rise in homeownership aspirations was aptly supported by developer discounts and offers, government incentives like Maharashtra's stamp duty cut, and lenders maintaining decadal-low interest rates.

Meanwhile, around 2,36,700 units were launched across the top 7 cities during the year, touching the pre-Covid level of 2019.

The key cities contributing to launches in

2021 were Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, and NCR--together accounting for 76 per cent of supply additions.

Supply in Mumbai grew

88 per cent over 2020. Around 58 per cent of the new supply was added in the sub-Rs 80 lakh budget segment. Supply by Hyderabad was up by 144 per cent, NCR by 71 per cent, Pune 67 per cent, Bengaluru 43 per cent, Kolkata by 290 per cent and Chennai's addition grew 35 per cent.

"The fact that launches were back to pre-Covid levels is very significant, and housing sales fell short of 2019 by a mere 10 per cent. Of the four quarters, Q4 2021 was by far the best, with housing sales in the top 7 cities attaining a new high of approx. 90,860 units. This was the highest quarterly sales performance since

2015," Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock.