Apartments sales in 7 cities at 161k units in Jan-Sep; highest since 2015

Sales of only apartments in January-September this year across seven cities stood at 1,61,604 units, surpassing the annual numbers achieved in the last seven years, according to JLL India.

Property consultant JLL India on Tuesday released the residential sales data of Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai markets. The data includes only apartments. Rowhouses, villas, and plotted developments are excluded from its analysis.

As per the data, the annual sales of apartments in the 2014 calendar year stood at 1,65,791 units, while sales in 2015 were 1,57,794 units. As many as 1,46,852 units were sold in 2016, 95,774 units in 2017, 136,082 units in 2018, and 1,43,302 units in 2019.

The apartment sales plunged in 2020 to 74,211 because of the COVID pandemic. The demand recovered to 1,28,064 in 2021.

"Quarterly residential sales have seen a revival since Q3, 2021, which has further gained momentum this year with sales of over 50,000 units in each of the first three quarters of 2022," the consultant said in a statement.

With the onset of the festive season, JLL India expects sales to remain strong in the current quarter.

As a result, annual sales in 2022 are expected to be more than 2,00,000 units, it said.

"We have witnessed a pick-up in sales due to enhanced consumer confidence amidst the steady revival of the Indian economy depicting the immense growth potential of the residential market. Projects launched by reputed developers witnessed good traction by end users," said Siva Krishnan, MD & Head of Residential Services, India, JLL.

Samantak Das, Chief Economist, and Head Research, India, JLL, said there is a rise in residential prices with the capital value showing a 3-11 per cent year-on-year increase across all cities.

Hyderabad witnessed the maximum appreciation in prices to the tune of 11 per cent on a yearly basis while in Pune prices increased by around 3 per cent.

"Also, the increase in the repo rate has resulted in an increase in mortgage rates. However, the interest rate after this hike would be still below what the homebuyers had to pay 8 to 9 years back. We believe that home loan interest rates inching towards 9 per cent and above may result in moderation of housing sales growth in the medium term," Das said.