Housing inventory of 15 months in Bengaluru, 44 months in Delhi-NCR: Report

Beating slowdown blues, unsold residential inventory overhang in top 7 cities has reduced to 30 months as on Q3 2019, against 37 months in the corresponding period of 2018, reveals an Anarock report. 

Bengaluru has the lowest unsold inventory overhang at 15 months, while the National Capital Region has the highest at 44 months as on Q3 2019.

Unsold inventory overhang indicates the number of months it will take for the current unsold housing stock to get cleared in the current market scenario. At any given point, an inventory overhang of 18-24 months is considered quite healthy.

• Top 7 cities’ inventory overhang reduced from 37 months in Q3 2018 to 30 months as on Q3 2019 
• Bengaluru has the lowest inventory overhang among top 7 cities at 15 months; NCR has the highest at 44 months
• Unsold inventory overhang in Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune at 34 months and 27 months, respectively
• Chennai and Hyderabad saw their inventory overhang reduce to 31 months and 16 months, respectively, in a year
• Kolkata has the second-highest inventory overhang at 38 months; it was 42 months a year ago
• Cumulative unsold stock across top 7 cities sees 5% yearly decline; is 656,000 units as on Q3 2019-end  

“If we look back and compare the yearly change in Q3 CY18 with that of the corresponding period in 2017, there was only a minor reduction — from 39 months in Q3 CY17 to 37 months in Q3 CY18. Thus, the annual change of unsold inventory overhang in the third quarter of 2019 was fairly better than the previous year. This suggests that builders now are following a laser-focused approach towards clearing their previous unsold stock. New launches in Q3 CY19 fell 13%, against the year-ago period in the top 7 cities, whereas it had increased by 51% in Q3 CY18, against Q3 CY17”
 

ANUJ PURI 
 

Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants