Pune, Mumbai corner half of Jan- March hsg sales in India

Low Interest Rates, Stable Prices Help

Stable prices, low interest rates, and government sops helped push up sales and launches
in the Pune and Mumbai housing market in the first three months of 2021, helping them
corner half of the sales in India, reports by a number of real estate observers revealed.
Real estate aggregator and broker PropTiger showed that the Pune housing market grew
even faster than Mumbai in January to March this year over the October-December
period last year, registering a 19% growth in sales. Despite the numbers being marginally
lesser than those of the first three months of 2020, PropTiger said all stakeholders in the
real estate market have sentiments “on the up”.
“As the economy gradually marches towards recovery, the residential real estate market
in the country is also seeing a positive momentum on the back of various measures taken
by the Centre and state governments, the RBI and the entire banking system. This positive
change is visible in the first three months of 2021through a rise in supply numbers, an
indication that developers are more comfortable now with regard to liquidity support
and buyer sentiment,” Dhruv Agarwala, group CEO of PropTiger, Housing.com, and
Makaan.com, said.
Real estate observer Knight Frank said a significant number of new launches in the Pune
market grew both in terms of quarters and year-on-year. Launches in Pune rose by
around 43% in the first three months of 2021, over the corresponding period in the last year.
Their report said despite loans being cheaper and bumper sales, prices stayed largely
stable, with a drop of around 3% over the last year.
“The first three months of 2021saw a significant rise in sales across the key markets, led
by Mumbai and Pune – the two markets that received substantial backing from the state
government in the form of reduced stamp duty. Other cities also recorded a rise in sales of
homes due to a shift in attitude in homebuyers that has now started to prefer ownership.
That coupled with home loan interest rates at multi-decade lows of sub-7%, a substantial
correction in apartment prices, as well as rise in household savings, seems to have
convinced homebuyers that this was an opportune time to purchase their properties,”
said Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director of Knight Frank.
Anarock said the recent rise in sales in the Pune and Mumbai markets also tilted the
housing market heavily towards the region. In the first three months of 2021, the Mumbai
and Pune real estate markets took up around 53% of the total sales in that period.