Housing sales rise 20% in southern cities, 18% in north, 15% in west

NEW DELHI: Housing demand and supply were higher in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad as compared to sales and new launches in the north and west regions, property consultant Anarock said.

According to a report, housing sales in the main southern cities collectively rose by 20 per cent as against 18 per cent rise in the north and 15 per cent in the west.

New housing launches increased by 77 per cent in 2018 to 67,850 units over the previous year. National Capital Region (NCR) saw an increase of just 16 per cent in new supply while the main west Indian cities of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune, together, saw a mere 17 per cent jump in new residential supply.

Anarock also found out that the collective unsold stock in these southern cities is a mere 19 per cent of the total 6.73 lakh unsold units across the top seven cities. NCR alone has nearly 28 per cent of the total unsold stock.

This clearly indicates that the housing markets in the southern cities are exceptionally resilient, and were quick to recover from the overall slowdown in the Indian real estate sector, said Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman of Anarock Property Consultants.

The housing market in southern cities are driven by end-user demand, particularly from people working in IT/ITES sector, while the NCR market is backed by investors, he said.

During all the ups and downs that the Indian real estate market has witnessed in recent years, the southern cities have displayed remarkable strength and resilience even in the worst phases.

Year 2018 was a mixed bag of highs and lows for the Indian real estate sector. The initial pangs of policy alterations seemed to fade away with each region seeing visible signs of recovery across segments, Kumar said.

Not only housing, Anarock said the retail and office segments of the real estate sector also increased activities in southern cities.

As per company data, the main southern cities saw collective office space absorption of nearly 21 million sq ft as against just 6 million sq ft in entire NCR.

All in all, the southern cities had a very clear edge across sectors in real estate activity in 2018. Their inherent advantage stems from the more professional and organised approach to real estate - not just post RERA (new realty law) implementation but also in the PRE-RERA years, Kumar concluded.