Housing sales fell 30%; new launches decline 44% in Q3FY20: PropTiger report  

New Delhi, 14th Jan 2020: New project launches in India’s nine key residential markets continued to show a decline, falling 44 per cent year-on-year in the period between October and December 2019, primarily on liquidity concerns, shows the report by PropTiger.com, part of Elara Technologies, that also owns Housing.com and Makaan.com.

According to “Real insight Q3FY20”, a quarterly analysis of India’s nine key property markets by PropTiger DataLabs, the ongoing industry concerns related to the NBFC sector, on which real estate developers largely depend on for their financial needs, has made borrowing difficult for builders at a time when a demand slowdown has hit housing sales. This double whammy has resulted in developers continuing to show a cautious stance towards new project launches.

“The various measures launched by the government in the recent past to revive growth in the real estate market seem to have made little impact. Considering real estate is a major contributor to overall GDP, which hit a glacial 4.5 per cent rate of growth in the July-September period, we expect further assistance from the government, which would nudge buyers to invest in real estate. In the Union Budget scheduled to be released on 1st February, we expect the Hon’ble Finance Minister to announce measures that would result in higher savings for individual taxpayers, some of which would hopefully make its way towards property purchases,” said Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Elara Technologies, the country’s only full stack real estate technology platform that owns Housing.com, Makaan.com and Proptiger.com.

Sales fell across cities

Housing sales in India’s nine key property markets fell 30 per cent annually during the October-December quarter despite the government launching several measures in the recent past to revive buyer sentiment. As against 91,464 units sold during the quarter last year, only 64,034 homes were sold across the nine markets in Q3 this year.

Mumbai contributed nearly 40 per cent to overall sales numbers.

What points towards a nation-wide phenomenon, sales declined across all these markets, with Bengaluru, popularly known as India’s Silicon Valley, registering a 50 per cent fall in sales numbers.

When compared to the first nine months of the previous financial year, sales fell by 13 per cent during the same period in the current fiscal. As against 263,294 units last year, only 228,220 housing units were sold this year.

Inventory declined 12%

As buyers showed greater faith towards ready homes, inventory levels, declined 12 per cent during the quarter. From 8.83 lakh unsold housing units at the end of the same period last year, unsold stock fell to 7.75 lakh in Q3 FY20. Mumbai and Pune together contribute 57 per cent of this unsold stock.  Also, half of the units in this stock are affordable homes (units priced below Rs 45 lakh).

At the current sales velocity, builders would take 29 months to sell off the existing stock.

Launches fall most in Kolkata, Gurugram

Only 41,133 units were launched in Q3 FY20 as against 73,226 units in the corresponding period last fiscal, the report shows. New launches fell across markets, with Kolkata and Gurugram seeing the biggest fall, at 79 and 74 per cent, respectively.

Nearly 40 per cent of new launches were concentrated in India’s financial capital Mumbai, data show.

Affordable housing continued to dominate launches, with 52 per cent units launched in this segment.

When compared to the first nine months (April-December) of the previous financial year, launches declined by 32 per cent during the same period in the current fiscal. While 215,596 units were launched between April and December in the previous year, 145,852 units were launched during the same period this year.

Prices increase marginally across cities; Hyderabad sees 13% appreciation

Average values of property increased by 13% year-over-year in Hyderabad, the highest increase among all the cities included in the report, while Gurugram and Ahmedabad registered 6% and 5% increase, respectively. In other cities, prices showed only nominal increases, between one and three per cent.

(The cities coved in the analysis are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram (includes Bhiwadi, Dharuhera and Sohna), Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai (includes Navi Mumbai and Thane), Pune and Noida (includes Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway))