Housing sales rose marginally, just 3 per cent, in the first half this year to over 1.24 lakh units in eight major cities despite fall in prices, Knight Frank India said.
It said that launches of new homes rose 46 per cent during the January-June period of 2018 to 91,739 units in these eight cities, compared with 62,738 units in the year-ago period.
The unsold inventory level dropped by 17 per cent to 4,97,289 units, it said.
Taking a longer view however, it said: "Both sales and launches have grown over the past 18 months and are at their highest level since the demonetisation period at approximately 1,24,000 and 92,000 units respectively."
As for year-on-year comparison for the first half this year, the Knight Frank data showed that housing sales in Delhi-NCR increased by 5 per cent to 18,047 units as against the year-ago period.
Bengaluru saw the maximum rise in housing sales by 22 per cent at 25,802 units, while Mumbai saw a marginal increase of 1 per cent to 32,412 units.
Housing sales in Hyderabad rose by 5 per cent to 8,313 units. Ahmadabad also saw an increase of 3 per cent to 8,087 units.
However, sales in Kolkata dropped by 19 per cent to 6,591 units.
Pune too witnessed a fall of 6 per cent to 16,451 units, while sales in Chennai dipped by 3 per cent to 8,585 units.
"Despite increased launches, reduced price, government reforms and incentive, housing demand is yet to take off," Knight Frank India Executive Director (North) Mudassir Zaidi told reporters here.
The drop in prices intensified in Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata at 9 per cent, 8 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.
"Effective price drop of 10-15 per cent continues in cities like Mumbai, NCR, Pune and Kolkata. Hyderabad bucks the trend with an exceptional price growth at 8 per cent year-on-year," Zaidi said.
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