Home sales have risen 93 per cent YoY in the second quarter of this calendar year in top-7 cities, due to the lower base last year under the first Covid-19 wave and developers actively using technology to push sales, said a new report.
However, home sales dropped by 58 per cent sequentially, said the report by Anarock Property Consultants.
About 24,570 units were sold in Q2CY21 across the top-7 cities, 12,740 units in the corresponding quarter of 2020, and 58,290 units in the preceding quarter (Q1 of 2021). Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune drove a massive share of housing sales between April and June 2021 with a 46 per cent share of the total sales.
Meanwhile, despite localised lockdowns and restrictions due to the second wave, developers launched new projects (mostly digitally) and put about. 36,260 units on the market across the top 7 cities. Interestingly, Hyderabad is the frontrunner in overall housing launches with around 8,850 units launched in Q2 of 2021, followed by MMR with 6,880 and Bengaluru with 6,690 units, it said.
Notably, the premium budget category (priced between Rs 80 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore) had the maximum new launches in the quarter with a 36 per cent share. Next came the mid-range segment (Rs 40-80 lakh). Unlike in previous quarters, affordable housing accounted for just 20 per cent of the new supply in Q2 2021.
Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, said, "The second Covid-19 wave definitely impacted overall residential property market activity in the second quarter this year when juxtaposed against the preceding quarter. However, compared to the corresponding period of 2020, the sector displayed remarkable resilience. In the backdrop of developers adopting technology in their businesses, there was a huge yearly jump in both new launches and sales. Importantly, the localised lockdowns and restrictions did not dent activity as much as the complete nation-wide lockdown last year.
“Additionally, we saw the rising dominance of listed and leading developers whose sales share against the smaller and unorganised ones increased further in the quarter amid the second wave, from 40:60 previously to 43:57 now. Back in FY2017, the ratio was 17:83. The impact of the second wave was felt more intensely by smaller and unorganised players.”
“Restrictions are now easing across cities and the vaccination drive is gathering momentum. We, therefore, anticipate residential demand to see steady growth in the upcoming quarter. The previously-noted structural shift in housing demand continues - many current homeowners seek to upgrade to larger homes and the previously purchase-averse millennials remain very active property buyers.”
However, larger developers felt that Q2CY21 will be a washout.
“We expect to see a significant impact in the first quarter but we would like to quickly scale up with new launches and expect momentum to pick up from the second quarter,” Godrej Properties (GPL) Chairman Pirojsha Godre said during a recent conference call with analysts.
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