Housing sales and new launches have plunged to a new low across India’s top 7 cities in Q2 2020. Latest ANAROCK research reveals that residential sales in the quarter plummeted by 81% on a yearly basis in these cities – from 68,600 units in Q2 2019 to just 12,720 units in Q2 2020.
If not for COVID-19, the top 7 cities were to see the delivery of nearly 4.66 lakh units by 2020-end. Launched after 2013, many of the projects were in the final leg of completion
It’s all very well to exhort developers to cut their prices to push sales, but this is still a very incomplete narrative presenting only half of the story.
From a more than 100% difference between the two rates in certain areas in Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, etc. in 2015, some localities presently show a mere 6% variation
As per ANAROCK research, average property prices in the top 7 cities in the last decade (2010-Q1 2020) saw a close to 38% jump. The average price of a home in the top 7 cities rose from approximately INR 4,063 per sq. ft. in 2010 to INR 5,599 per sq. ft. by Q1 2020.
The previous 'gold standard' of Indian housing - the walk-to-work / short drive to work, by definition only in and around central corporate workplace hubs - may shed some its popularity for the middle class
Historically, the major demand driver for NRIs investing in Indian real estate was their eventual inevitable return to India. The general sentiment of a post-COVID-19 reverse exodus to India has thrown this driver into sharper relief.
Currently, the top 7 cities account for almost 70% of India's residential market, with the remaining 30% accounted for in Tier 2 & 3 cities. This ratio may well change in times to come. Cities like Lucknow, Indore, Chandigarh, Kochi, Coimbatore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad would be the main beneficiaries of the reverse migration of professionals who have lost their jobs in the metros or are likely to.
Land is the basis of all economic activity in any country, and a sound land policy - updated to current requirements - is imperative for developing nations like India
Real estate is fundamentally a people business based on relationship-building - but as the proliferation of social media channels proves, there is more than one way for interactions to take place.
