'Sale of residential units rise 3% across metros in first half of 2018'

With rise in demand in the residential real estate sector, sales of housing units across eight metro cities rose by 3 per cent in the January-June period to 124,288 units, a Knight Frank report said here on Wednesday.

With the rise in sales, unsold inventory in the residential segment fell by 17 per cent to 497,289 units, it added.

"This periiod of stabilisation, right-sizing and right-pricing of new residential product and improving home-buyer sentiment due to increased transparency have culminated in a 45 per cent YOY growth in units launched during H1 (first half) 2018 and more modest 3 per cent YOY growth during the same period of sales," the half-yearly report said.

The survey was carried out in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

It further stated that both sales and launches grew over the past 18 months and are at "their highest level since the demonetisation period, at approximately 124,000 and 92,000 units respectively".

Shishir Baijal, CMD, Knight Frank India said: "The turbulent times that we have experienced starting from November 8, 2016 to the changes that have happened in 2017 have really shaped the way the residential market is moving ahead."

The office space market in the country also witnessed a growth in demand during the first six months of 2018, as per the report.

"The Indian office space market saw 2 million square metres (21.7 million square feet) of transactions registering a healthy 13 per cent growth YoY," it said.

--IANS

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