Mumbai property registrations goes up despite slump in house sales

Low base, festive launches prop-up sales registrations

While the property market here is almost stagnant, growth in registration of properties is showing a rise. Registration for April and May saw year-on-year increases of 24 and 15 per cent, respectively, show data.

In March, sales registrations hit a 31-month high — registrations rose 20 per cent year-on-year.

On a monthly basis, however, April and May saw declines of eight and six per cent, respectively, according to data collated by stock brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher from the Director General of Registrations, Mumbai. Registration data comes with a lag effect of three to four months, as buyers usually register properties a couple of months after the purchases. Data collated by the brokerage included that for homes and offices.

“Sales registrations, through the first five months of 2013, have held strong, given last year’s low base, coupled with the festive season launches post a long hiatus,” Kejal Mehta and Pratik Shah, analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher, said in a report released today.

The growth was primarily accounted for by Mumbai city, not its suburbs, owing to many launches in the city centre. In the last few months, developers such as Lodha Group, L&T Realty and Omkar launched various projects in central Mumbai.

However, Mehta and Shah said given the lack of launches in the last few months and the estimated slow sales in the monsoon season, they expected sales registration to weaken through the next few months.

According to data collated by realty research firm PropEquity, the absorption of homes had fallen 22 per cent in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, comprising Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai. The Delhi National Capital Region saw a rise of two per cent in 2012-13, the data showed.

Prabhudas Lilladher said lease registrations were rising at a fast pace, with about 12,000 registrations recorded in April.

“This trend clearly displays a preference towards leasing over buying property, given the sticky property prices and the falling rentals. Lease numbers have remained strong, despite slackness in the commercial real estate space. Therefore, any pick-up in this could only propel the number upwards,” Mehta and Shah said.

Growth in sale deed registrations

January	26%
February	16%
March	20%
April	24%
May	15%

^{Source: DGR, PL Research}