'Delay in clearances brought down new launches in realty'

Owing to delay in approvals and clearances, new launches across top seven cities declined to around 120,000 units compared to 2014, a recent study by Colliers International says.
"Nearly 120,000 units were launched in 2015 across top seven metros. Residential buyers also maintained a cautious approach, however, an increase in enquiries was witnessed towards the end offering hope in some cities," its Surabhi Arora, Associate Director Research (India) said in a report.
According to the report, Bengaluru continued its run in the commercial as well as the residential market as end users drove residential demand in 2015, witnessing the launch of nearly 22,000 new residential units.

Nearly one third of the total units launched were concentrated in the southern and south-eastern belt comprising locations such as Sarjapur Road, Electronic City and Bannerghatta Road.
The Chennai residential market showed resilience as it witnessed signs of revivals despite natural calamity and low sales velocity. Nearly 12,000 new units were launched in 2015 as several locations along Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) witnessed launches in mid segment.
A major market like Mumbai registered a decline in new launches, despite recording a slight recovery by the year end. Colliers recorded the launch of approximately 35,000 new units this year, which was about 40 per cent less than the last year's new launches.

It remained a dull year for the NCR market, as new residential launches took a step back. The year 2015 even ended on a cautious note for Pune as there was a marginal decline of about 4 per cent in the new launches and transaction volumes.

Delhi NCR witnessed a launch of around 2400 units which Pune recorded a launch of 32000 units during the year. In view of the reduced demand, Gurgaon also witnessed launch of 10,300 new units this year, which was about 45 per cent less than the last year.
"Although, it is difficult to forecast the real estate market which is highly sentiment driven in India, in 2016, the overall property markets are expected to continue to edge further into recovery," Arora said.

She said factors like easing interest rate pressure, well-performing commercial market, positive employment scenario and government proactive policies such as liberalised FDI policy, smart cities, housing for all, etc will be key drivers for the growth.
"Transaction volume in the residential sector will improve and the current oversupply in the market will get mitigated in the coming quarters, as the number of new project launches remained limited in almost all the cities," she added.