Searches for new apartments increased by half in 2022 over the previous year and as many as 60 percent of prospective homebuyers were looking to buy residential properties while the remaining 40 percent wanted to take property on rent. For buying, the sweet spot was for apartments below Rs 50 lakh, with the maximum queries in this price bracket, search trends on Housing.com have shown.
Housing.com research also showed that searches for residential properties priced between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore grew 24 per cent annually in 2022. Enquiries for new apartments rose by 52 percent in 2022 over the previous year, while those for resale properties registered a 2 percent year-on-year drop in 2022. Online searches for properties with a 3BHK and above configuration grew 1.4 times in 2022, the Housing.com data showed.
The online real estate services provider analysed visitors' activities on its platform in calendar 2022 which showed that online property search volume for renting homes grew 1.5 times. Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad took the lion’s share of searches and queries for renting a home in 2022.
In tier 2 cities, Lucknow emerged as the top city for buying a home, followed by Jaipur and Indore. Online property searches for apartments grew at 23 percent year-on-year, and 8 percent for independent homes in 2022. Overall, the report suggests that housing demand in these micro markets will remain strong in 2023.
Housing.com witnessed the highest search volume for home purchase in the Thane West location in Mumbai, followed by Whitefield in Bengaluru and Noida Extension in Delhi-NCR. New Town in Kolkata and Mira Road East in Mumbai were at fourth and fifth position, respectively, in terms of search for residential properties. Chandkheda in Ahmedabad was at sixth, followed by Wakad and Kharghar, both in Pune, and Gota and Vastral, both in Ahmedabad.
“Based on the trends highlighted in our latest report, I am optimistic about the future of the Indian residential real estate market. We expect the demand for housing to remain strong in the top micro markets, and we see a growing interest in new apartments and properties priced between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore. We also see a lot of potential in tier 2 cities, where online property searches for apartments are growing at a faster pace than for independent homes. This presents a significant opportunity for developers and real estate agents to cater to the needs of home buyers in these cities,” said Dhruv Agarwala, group CEO, Housing.com, PropTiger.com and Makaan.com
“Sales of residential properties continue to be robust even during this quarter despite the hike in interest rates over the past year. Overall, I am bullish on the future of the Indian residential real estate market and I believe that the industry will continue to see growth in the coming years, driven by factors such as urbanisation, rising disposable incomes and favourable government policies,” he said.
“We are definitely in the up-cycle for residential realty demand owing to the pandemic-induced shift towards higher homeownership. Fuelled by both end-user and investor interest, the property markets have shown resilience where buyers are carefully filtering out projects and looking for the right product mix in terms of affordability, accessibility and quality of living. With new supply surpassing pre-RERA levels in 2022, there are a plethora of new projects offering more choice to buyers. We see this up-cycle continuing in 2023, with quality living and lifestyle upgradation as key parameters defining property purchase,” said Ankita Sood, head of research, Housing.com, PropTiger.com and Makaan.com.