More than 4 lakh unsold apartments in 9 cites, estimates brokerage firm

PropTiger says the apartments in the affordable sector should be cleared quickly after govt raised income tax exemption limit.

Real estate companies have 4.12 lakh unsold apartments costing less than Rs 45 lakh as demand for affordable homes improves, according to property brokerage firm PropTiger.com.

PropTiger CEO Dhruv Agarwala said unsold stocks in the affordable housing segment--apartments costing Rs 45 lakh and less--will be cleared quickly after the government increased the income tax deduction limit on home loan interest to Rs 3.5 lakh from Rs 2 lakh. 

PropTiger estimated companies had unsold inventories of 7,97,623 units at the end of June quarter in nine cities: Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Out of this total unsold housing stocks, PropTiger said 4,12,930 units were in affordable segment.

"A low interest rate regime along with the measures announced in the Budget to push affordable housing would encourage homebuyers to invest actively in this category now," said Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO of Housing.com, PropTiger.com, Makaan.com and Fastfox.com.

He does not anticipate much improvement in new supply with developers focusing on completing existing projects and clearing stocks-in-hand.

"With these two factors at work, affordable housing inventory in India's key property markets is likely to decline significantly in the following quarters," Agarwala said.

As per the data, Mumbai had the maximum unsold affordable housing units at 1,39,984 units, followed by Pune at 98,378 units.

Ahmedabad had 41,791 unsold units of Rs 45 lakh and below, while Noida 35,811 unsold units, Kolkata 30,923 units, Gurugram 22,307 units, Bengaluru 20,146 units, Chennai 18,709 units and Hyderabad 4,881 units.

Singapore-based Elara Technologies Pte Ltd is the owner of Housing.com, PropTiger.com, Makaan.com. and FastFox.com. It provides digital real estate marketing and transactions services.