New home launches fall 14% in Delhi-NCR during 2015

Launches of new homes fell by 14 per cent in the Delhi-NCR market during last year to nearly 23,000 units due to slowdown in demand, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The launches of new homes fell from 26,802 units in 2014 to 22,979 flats in 2015.

Half of the total new launches in 2015 were in the mid segment at about 12,400 units. About 79 per cent of the units were launched in the locations of Dwarka Expressway, New Gurgaon, Southern Peripheral Road, Sohna, Noida Expressway and Noida Extension in NCR.

Housing prices of the newly launched projects fell by up to 10 per cent in Delhi-NCR during last year compared with 2013 rates.

"With a view to attract buyers, developers have tried to bring down the ticket size of their offerings by either reducing unit sizes or reducing capital values or both. Such efforts from developers have been witnessed across submarkets especially in Southern Peripheral Road, New Gurgaon and Noida," C&W said.

In 2015, the Dwarka Expressway and Southern Peripheral Road saw the largest decline in launch prices in NCR of 10 per cent as compared to basic selling price of 2013.

On the Noida market, the consultant said the submarkets of Noida witnessed softening of capital values of new launches, while registering a marginal increase in the average size of a 2-bed room flat.

The capital values of new launces have softened by 4-5 per cent since 2013. Average size of a 2BHK increased marginally leading to stable or increased ticket sizes.

"As a result, the market, which is primarily end-user driven and has relatively lower capital values have witnessed almost stable or increase in ticket size of 2BHK units.

Noida Expressway is fast emerging as a mid-segment residential destination with presence of basic infrastructure which attracts end-users, while Noida Extension has established itself as the affordable residential region in Delhi-NCR with one of the lowest capital values, the report said.

On southern peripheral road in Gurgaon, the primary prices in the submarket has softened by 10 per cent compared to 2013, while the apartment size offered by developers in recent projects also trimmed to around 1,200 sq ft from earlier 1,400 sq ft making it slightly affordable for end-users.