Housing sales and launches dive steeply in December quarter: Report

Housing sales fell sharply by 31 per cent while housing project launches dipped 40 per cent in eight major cities during the December quarter due to market uncertainty post-demonetisation, according to a report. 

PropEquity, a real estate data, research and analytics firm, stated that the stock of unsold houses, fell marginally by 1 per cent to 4,53,592 units in Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai from 4,59,067 units in the previous quarter.

Samir Jasuja, the founder and CEO at PropEquity, said that the real estate sector in India, especially housing, is going through a critical transition phase post-demonetisation as transaction activity has slowed down considerably.

Experts say that home launches fell as developers were waiting to see the impact of demonetisation on real estate before launching any new project. Analysts hold the view that housing demand declined by 31 per cent due to uncertainty post-demonetisation, which led to very few transactions materialising in both primary and secondary markets. The average prices of unsold units almost remained stagnant at Rs 6,683 per square feet as buyers and sellers delayed their decisions. 

However, the Union Budget 2017 proposed to grant industry status to affordable housing, which will ultimately benefit developers having projects in the affordable segment.