Stagnant prices and best-buy deals have brought back some of the demand luxury homes, leading to a decline of 12 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in the segment's overall unsold stock in Q1 2019.

To put it in numbers, unsold stock of luxury homes, priced between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2.5 crore, fell from roughly 48,300 units as on Q1FY18 to about 42,650 units in Q1FY19.

However, despite a seven per cent fall in inventory over last year, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) still accounted for highest share of unsold luxury housing stock in the first quarter of last fiscal, at 23,930 units, as per the latest study by real estate consulting firm ANAROCK. The other most expensive market, NCR, saw a similar seven per cent yearly decline, with 9,590 unsold luxury units as on Q1FY19.

In terms of extent of decline, Bengaluru posted a record fall of 49 per cent from 6,370 units in Q1 of 2018 to 3,260 units in the same quarter a year later, on the back of rising preference among non-resident Indian (NRIs) to invest in the Karnataka capital. According to Anarock, the investment portfolios of HNIs and UHNIs have typically been about 30-35 per cent of the total investments in real estate.

The second-highest decline was in Kolkata which offloaded 37 per cent of unsold luxury homes, leading to the lowest luxury housing inventory, at around 770 units. On the other hand, Chennai and Hyderabad saw unsold luxury homes pile up further by 50 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

Unsold inventory of mid-segment housing, priced between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 80 lakh, saw the maximum decline of 14 per cent in the first quarter of calendar year 2019 on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y). Unsold stock in this segment across the top 7 cities is nearly 225,000 units, second only to the affordable segment which accounts for 242,000 unsold units.

In the affordable housing category, for units priced less than Rs 40 lakh, overall unsold stock in Q1 2019 saw a three per cent increase since Q1 2018. The jump in unsold inventory in affordable housing segment came on the back of maximum new launches in 2018, accounting for a 40 per cent share of the total of 195,300 units launched in the year.

Meanwhile, with more and more buyers looking to buy affordable properties on account of several incentives such as lower GST rates, this unsold affordable stock is likely to reduce going forward.