Affordable housing sales see drop of 4% in top 8 cities

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Sales of affordable homes — priced up to Rs 60 lakh each — declined 4 per cent in eight major cities to 61,121 units during January-March this year on lower supply and higher demand for luxury apartments, according to PropEquity.

The top eight cities are — Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Real estate data analytic firm PropEquity data showed that sales of homes, costing up to Rs 60 lakh each stood at 6,3787 units in the January-March period of the last calendar year.

A lower supply of affordable homes is one of the key factors for this marginal fall in sales. As per the PropEquity data, the fresh supply of homes, up to Rs 60 lakh each, declined to 33,420 units during January-March 2024 across these top eight cities from 53,818 units in the year-ago period.

Builders are focusing more on launching luxury apartments to encash a surge in demand for premium residential properties. Profit margins are also high in luxury projects. As per the data, housing sales in this price category declined to 2,35,340 units in the 2023 calendar year from 2,51,198 units in the preceding year.

In 2019, sales of homes, each priced up to Rs 60 lakh, stood at 2,26,414 units. During the 2020 calendar year, which saw an outbreak of the COVID pandemic, sales in this price category fell to 1,88,233 units.

However, sales bounced back in 2021 and 2022 to 2,17,274 units and 2,51,198 units, respectively. Sales declined again in 2023 to 2,35,340 units compared to the preceding year.

According to PropEquity data, the sales of homes priced up to Rs 60 lakh rose in MMR to 28,826 units during January-March this year from 23,401 units in the year-ago period.

In Pune, the sales fell to 12,299 units from 14,532 units. Sales in Ahmedabad slipped to 6,892 units from 8,087 units. Hyderabad saw a decline in sales to 3,360 units from 3,674 units, while Chennai witnessed a fall in sales to 2,003 units from 3,295 units. Sales in Bengaluru decreased to 2,801 units from 5,193 units. In Kolkata, sales rose to 3,741 units from 2,831 units.

Sales of homes, up to Rs 60 lakh per unit, declined in Delhi-NCR to 1,199 units in January-March this year from 2,774 units in the year-ago period.

PE Analytics Ltd, listed on the stock exchange and runs PropEquityplatform, reported a 37 per cent growth in the total income to Rs 44.17 crore last fiscal from Rs 32.3 crore in 2022-23. PropEquity is an online provider of analytics, data, and deal flows covering the Indian real estate industry.

The company tracks over 1,73,000 projects of 57,500 developers across 44 cities in India on a real-time basis. — PTI