'Registration of homes in Mumbai city declines 52% in Dec; up 70% for 2021'

Registration of housing properties in the Mumbai municipal region fell 52 per cent year-on-year to 9,320 units during December on higher base, but the numbers jumped 70 per cent in the full calendar year 2021 to 1,11,552 units, according to Knight Frank India.

The registration numbers for full year 2021 are the highest in a decade.

The registration of homes stood at 19,581 units in December 2020, because of lower stamp duty rates.

In the entire last year, 65,633 homes were registered.

Registration data is of transactions made in both primary and secondary (re-sale) residential markets.

"Mumbai city (MCGM region) saw total property sale registrations of 111,552 in 2021," Knight Frank said.

Total registrations in 2021 were higher 70 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) over 2020 and 45 per cent higher than the pre-pandemic year of 2019, it added.

Knight Frank India Chairman and Managing Director Shishir Baijal said, "The sales momentum in Mumbai continues to maintain its pace well into the last day of the year. What started as a sop-led growth, sales trend in the city has now come to a certain phase of stability and indeed maturity."

Despite being the most expensive market, he said factors like lower capital values and decadal low home loan interest rates have made Mumbai more affordable than previous years.

Commenting on the registrations, Amit Goyal, CEO of India Sotheby's International Realty, said, "These strong numbers reflect the confident mood of homebuyers."

"While the first three months of the year witnessed significant transactions in Mumbai thanks to stamp duty waiver by the government, the rest of the year was buoyant due to several factors

low home loan rates, pent-up demand, and desire to upgrade to bigger homes," he said.

Goyal expected demand to improve further in 2022.

S Raheja Realty Director Ram Raheja said, "The consistent performance since 2020 reflects that the rising demand from homebuyers was not a temporary spike."

Mumbai has performed exceptionally well with more fence-sitters taking the plunge and existing buyers seeking larger spaces, he added.

Macrotech Developers (Lodha group), Godrej Properties, Oberoi Realty, Hiranandani group, Kalpataru Ltd, Tata Housing, Shapoorji Pallonji, Piramal Realty, Mahindra Lifespace Developers, Rustomjee group and K Raheja group are major players in the Mumbai market.

Bengaluru-based Prestige group and Puravankara Ltd have also entered the Mumbai market.