Housing prices up 3-7% in top 8 cities in 2021; new launches up 75%: Report

Housing prices increased in the range of 3-7% last year across eight major cities due to rise in rates of construction raw materials like cement and steel, says property brokerage firm PropTiger.com.

Housing prices increased in the range of 3-7 per cent last year across eight major cities due to rise in rates of construction raw materials like cement and steel, according to property brokerage firm PropTiger.com.

In its report 'Real Insight Residential - Annual Round-up 2021', PropTiger.com, which is owned by Australia's REA group, housing sales increased 13 per cent in 2021, to 2,05,936 units from 1,82,639 units in the previous year.

The new launches of housing units rose 75 per cent to 2.14 lakh units in 2021 compared to 1.22 lakh units in the preceding year.

"Beyond the numbers which speak for themselves, what is remarkable is the resilience of the real estate market in India. Despite multiple waves of the pandemic, which resulted in multiple lockdowns, the residential real estate market has not only bounced back but is also on the cusp of a cyclical upturn," said Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.com.

With policy support from the government and the low interest rate regime maintained by the RBI, Agarwala expressed confidence about the sector, entering into 2022.

"Increase in raw material price pushed property prices up in 2021. Consistent increase in raw materials prices is pushing up property prices, with all eight prime residential markets covered in the report showing annual increase in per square foot price of new properties," PropTiger said.

Ahmedabad and Hyderabad housing markets witnessed maximum appreciation with an annual price hike of 7 per cent each in 2021.

Housing prices appreciated by 6 per cent in Bengaluru and 3 per cent in Pune and 4 per cent in Mumbai. Chennai, Delhi NCR and Kolkata saw 5 per cent rise in rates.

On housing sales, PropTiger report showed that sales increased 39 per cent in Ahmedabad to 16,875 units in 2021 from 12,156 units in the previous year.

Bengaluru saw 7 per cent increase in sales to 24,983 units last year from 23,458 units during 2020.

Housing sales in Chennai went up 25 per cent to 13,055 units from 10,452 units, while Delhi-NCR saw just a marginal increase of 1 per cent to 17,907 units from 17,789 units.

Hyderabad witnessed 36 per cent growth in sales to 22,239 units from 16,400 units, while Kolkata saw 9 per cent rise to 9,896 units from 9,061 units.

In Maharashtra, housing sales in Mumbai rose 8 per cent to 58,556 units from 54,237 units.

Pune saw 9 per cent increase in sales to 42,425 units in 2021 from 39,086 units in the previous year.

"Developers have been quick to respond to the positive changes in buyer sentiment, as evidenced by the offers available in the market, especially during the festive season of 2021, which resulted in improved metrics for both, demand and supply," said RajanSood, Business Head, PropTiger.com.

"Basis the data available with us, it seems very likely that we will see an increase in prices in 2022, even as the inventory overhang continues to decline in 2022. The biggest trend we foresee is that the real estate market will continue to consolidate its growth in 2022 as well," he added.

REA India (previously known as Elara Technologies) is a part of REA Group Ltd of Australia. It is the country's leading full stack real estate technology platform that owns Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.com.