Housing sales down 66% in Apr-Jun: Report

NEW DELHI: Housing sales has dropped by 66% across top 9 cities in India in the second quarter of 2020, according to a report by PropEquity, an real

estate data and analytics platform. According to data, sale has dropped to to 21,294 units versus 62,851 units in Q1 2020. The sales fell primarily as the restrictions were imposed by the Indian government across the country to stop the spread of COVID-19 epidemic.

The new supply or launches of housing units also decreased by 81% during the same period to 11,967 units from 63,535 units in Q1 2020 as developers hardly launched any new projects as sales went to standstill. Noida was the only city where there were zero new launches in Q2 versus othercities Gurugram, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai Thane, Kolkata and Pune witnessed downfall at 81%, 45%, 92%, 79%, 85%, 88%, 73%, 92% and 81% respectively.

Most of the new launches in other cities took place after the lockdownrestrictions were relaxed by May third week onwards. “These are unprecedented times for the world economy and India is one of the hardest hit countries due to COVID-19 epidemic. Real estate sector which was slowly coming up by March was hit with a complete halt in construction and sales activities by March last week,” said Samir Jasuja, founder and managing director at PropEquity.

Gurgaon saw a fall of 81% in new launches as compared to the last quarter. The New launches stood at 138 units in Q2’20. Sales also decreased by 65% in the sequential quarter at 361 units. “We believe larger developers with low debt leverage will ride out the storm and will do reasonably well by Q3 onwards within the context of the new normal. We may witness resizing of units, discounts, amenities and special payment schemes to be offered by developers to create demand, especially during the upcoming festive season,” Jasuja. In Q2’20, Noida witnessed a 100% fall in new launches on a Q-o-Q basis. Whereas, sales decreased by 26% to 1,177 units during the same period.

In Mumbai, new launches witnessed a decrease of 85% on quarterly basis with 9,06 units launched in Q2’20 while the absorption dropped by 62% to 2,206 units.

Kolkata witnessed 550 new launch units in Q2’20 decreasing by 73% on a Q-o-Q basis. Sales dropped by 70% to 1,046 units in Q2’20. Bengaluru saw a quarterly downfall of 45% in new launches with 5,231 units launched in Q2’20. Sales dropped by 66% to 2,818 units during the same period.