Mumbai, Aug 1: The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns across states led to a 58 per cent fall in sales of housing units across seven major cities during April-June period of 2021 from the preceding March quarter, according to a report by PropEquity, a real estate data, research and analytics firm.
While home sales declined by 63 per cent in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Kolkata, it witnessed a 43 per cent fall in National Capital Region (NCR) and 58 per cent fall in Pune. Bengaluru and Chennai saw housing sales decline by 55 per cent and 59 per cent, respectively.
“Stringent lockdown across major cities in India impacted housing sales as home registrations were also suspended including slow pace of home loan disbursals,” PropEquity said.
New supply and launches of housing units also decreased by 54 per cent during the quarter to 34,053 units from 74,196 units in January-March. Chennai saw the biggest fall in new launches at 66 per cent, followed by Bengaluru and Hyderabad with 65 per cent each.
However, housing sales registered a 51 per cent jump across the seven cities during the June quarter as compared to the corresponding quarter of last year. While NCR region saw a 98 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in sales, Hyderabad registered a 138 per cent increase in total absorption at 6,463 housing units. Kolkata and Bengaluru saw the lowest increase in YoY sales at 14 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively.
It must be noted that home sales were hit by hard during June quarter last year due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections in the country.
Commenting on the findings of the report, PropEquity founder and managing director Samir Jasuja said, “…India is one of the hardest hit countries due to COVID-19 epidemic. Real estate sector which was slowly recovering by March was hit with the second wave. Going ahead, we may witness resizing of units, marketing led discounts, amenities and special payment schemes to be offered by developers to boost demand, especially during the beginning of the festive season.”
However, according to Ambience Group President (Sales & Marketing) Ankush Kaul, the pause in real estate transactions during the second wave was temporary, with housing demand bouncing back and growing steadily since June.
“We expect this trend to continue provided COVID third wave does not create a major impact,” said Kaul.
Ambience Group is engaged in the business of real estate development, mainly with focus on premium developments, primarily in NCR.
