From staring at an existential black hole just two years ago, India's housing market seems to have perked up and how. It is boom time as realtors have been launching new housing developments across Indian cities—as much as an average 85 per cent all India, and a whopping 144 per cent if you take cities like Hyderabad.
The overall rise in the property market has seen it bridging the gap by up to 90 per cent of pre-COVID levels, rising 71 per cent in the past year alone, according to a study released on Monday morning by real estate consultant Anarock.
“Despite the pandemic, 2021 was a fantastic year for the Indian housing sector,” said Anarock chairman Anuj Puri. “The fact that launches were back to pre-COVID levels is very significant, and housing sales fell short of 2019 by a mere 10 per cent. This (October to December 2021 period) was the highest quarterly sales performance since 2015.”
The rise in housing buying has been pushed by a variety of measures, ranging from state governments like Maharashtra cutting stamp duties, realty majors offering discounts and offers and banks offering some of the lowest home loan rates seen over the past decade or so. The pandemic realities also made many renters think of acquiring their own homes with all requisite amenities.
About 2.37 lakh units (apartments, plots, villas) were sold in 2021, with both the top two real estate markets in the country, MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) and NCR (National Capital Region), showing robust sales. The two main markets also managed to slash their lot of unsold inventory substantially.
Total number of new launches was about 2.36 lakh units—much more than the nearly 1.28 lakh last year. MMR had the maximum, at nearly 57,000 units.
“The real-estate sector saw a strong bounce-back once the vaccine drives ramped up around the country,” said Reeza Sebastian Karimpanal, president, residential business, Embassy Group. Karimpanal observed “Overall, the pandemic has catalysed demand for housing, instead of suppressing it. The Indian residential real estate sector is witnessing the green shoots of revival, encouraged by a buoyant festive season. We anticipate that disruptions will be short lived and sales will ramp up in the coming financial year.”