Home sales have risen by 23% across top seven cities in India in the first five months of 2021 to 1,32,818 units versus 1,08,199 units in the first five months of 2020, a report by PropEquity, a real estate data, research and analytics firm has said.

Majority of the sales took place until April 15.

Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, MMR and Pune are the cities where home sales witnessed a growth in first five months of 2021 versus first five months of 2020 at 16%, 40%, 39%, 29% and 34% respectively.

Only Kolkata and NCR witnessed downfall of 11% and 20% respectively in home sales during the same period.

Sales in NCR were greatly impacted by the second wave of COVID-19 during which the city came to a standstill to tackle the health emergency. This was followed by a stringent lockdown which further impacted housing sales. NCR saw a decrease of 20% in home sales in first five months of 2021 at 9,106 units while new launches increased by 50% to 7,815 units.

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Chennai and NCR are the cities where new launches witnessed an uptick in first five months of 2021 versus first five months of 2020 at 20% and 50% respectively. Whereas, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, MMR, and Pune witnessed downfall of 35%, 28%, 28%, 31% and 23% respectively in home sales during the same period, the analysis said.

MMR saw an increase of 29% in home sales in the first five months of 2021 at 51,040 units, whereas new launches fell by 31% to 30,290 units, it said.

“India witnessed the worst COVID-19 wave in the months of April and May which drastically stopped almost all real estate activity across major cities. Fortunately, the worst is behind us as the infection and COVID-19 related deaths have fallen significantly leading major cities to relax pandemic-related restrictions. The vaccination drive has also picked up pace and hopefully there will be limited impact from the third wave. We expect home sales to bounce back faster as recovery has picked up pace,” said Samir Jasuja, founder and managing director at PropEquity.

“We are now again witnessing housing sales, new launches and business in general slowly getting back on track. We expect sales to further improve going ahead in the next quarter for projects that are being offered by fundamentally strong developers,” said Ankush Kaul, president (Sales & Marketing) - Ambience Group.

Home sales rise by 23% across top seven cities: PropEquity

NCR saw a decrease of 20% in home sales in first five months of 2021 at 9,106 units while new launches increased by 50% to 7,815 units

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