MUMBAI: Luxury flats priced at Rs 5 crore and above comprised a meagre 3% of the total apartment sales in Greater Mumbai in the last year.
A bulk of the transactions (roughly 60%) were for flats costing Rs 1 crore and below, according to real estate consultancy firm, Knight Frank. The data was collated based on property registrations in the department of registrations and stamps between January 2020 and January 2021.
However, a substantial chunk of the sales (37%) were for apartments priced between Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore.
The most affordable range in the city (up to Rs 1 crore) saw total transactions of over 42,800 in the 12-month period ending January 28, 2021. Over 29,500 transactions were registered for flats priced from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore. In comparison, only 752 apartments costing more than Rs 10 crore were sold during this period.
Meanwhile, residential sales in Mumbai continued their momentum despite a rise of 1% in stamp duty since January 1,. Over 10,412 flats were sold till Saturday afternoon, according to Knight Frank. “After recording a historic surge in home sale registrations in December 2020, sales continued to maintain momentum in January 2021 despite the stamp duty rising from 2% to 3%,” it said.
Sales momentum in January 2021 was stronger than it was in the September-November 2020 period. November 2020 had recorded the second highest sales in the last 5 months. While sales in December 2020 hit a record high, which was expected as the stamp duty window of 2% was expiring,” it said.
“The total revenue realized by the city exchequer in January 2021 from home registrations was estimated Rs 305 crore, higher than the monthly collections in the April-November 2020 period. This implies that the government also benefited from the reduction in stamp duty rates,” said the Knight Frank report.
Said Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director, Knight Frank India, “After recording a stellar performance in December 2020, residential sales in Mumbai continued unabated in the new year despite the 1% increase in stamp duty rates. This comes as comforting news for the hitherto beleaguered real estate sector of this region.”
Since the announcement of the reduction of stamp duty from September 1, 2020, homes sales have grown on a YoY basis each month. “The annual sales during the 12 months of 2019 were 67,863 units. and we witnessed sales of 52,820 units in the 5 months since the stamp duty cut in September 2020 till date. The sales during January-August 2020, i.e. the period before the stamp duty cut was 23,225 units,” it said.
The total value of all apartments sold in 2020 was estimated to be around Rs 1.1 lakh crore, surpassing the 2019-mark of Rs 90,769 crore. In January 2021, apartments worth Rs 10,171 crore were sold.