Housing prices up 7.6% in Q3 last fiscal: RBI data

Housing prices went up by an average of 7.6 percent in the three months ended December 2017, with highest appreciation recorded in in Kochi, according to RBI data.

The Reserve Bank of India today released its quarterly house price index (HPI) for Q3 of 2017-18 fiscal. It is based on transactions data received from housing registration authorities in ten major cities -- Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kanpur and Kochi.

"The all-India HPI recorded growth of 7.6 percent on an annual basis (ie, Q3 of 2017-18 over Q3 of 2016-17) as against 7.4 percent observed in the previous quarter and 8.3 percent a year ago," RBI said, adding that the annual growth remained stable.

The annual growth in HPI ranged from 0.2 percent (in Bengaluru) to 26.6 percent (in Kochi), indicating large divergences in city-wise housing price movements, it added.

After Kochi, the maximum rise in housing prices was witnessed in Kanpur at 23.6 percent, followed by Ahmedabad (17.9 percent) and Jaipur (16 percent). Mumbai saw a price rise of 9 percent, Delhi (6.7 percent), Kolkata (5.5 percent), Lucknow (5 percent) and Chennai (1.87 percent), according to RBI data.

On sequential basis, all-India HPI rose by 2.4 percent in the October-December period of last fiscal over the previous quarter. "In sequential terms, all cities recorded an increase, with Ahmedabad recording the highest rise (8.8 percent) and Delhi recording the minimum rise (0.1 percent)," RBI said.