Housing prices remain stable in September, supply dips: CBRE

Housing prices remained largely stable during the last month across the country's seven major cities while supply dipped marginally, according to property consultant CBRE.
"After recording an improvement in sentiments in August, the residential market saw a marginal dip in fresh supply of housing units during September," CBRE South Asia CMD Anshuman Magazine said in 'India Realty Market Update' for September.
The consultant tracks real estate market of seven cities - Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
The consultant said the new project launches will increase over the next few months on the back of festive season, a revival in economic sentiments, and tax incentives introduced by the new government.

"Prices remained stable across most locations, barring central locations in Chennai, which saw a 8-10 per cent rise over price points in August," CBRE said.
The home-buyer demand continued to remain focused on mid- end and high-end projects.

In the organised retail space, CBRE said the rental values remained stable across major markets in all leading cities, with the exception of Mumbai's Linking Road, which saw a decline of 3-4 per cent over the previous month.
On office segment, CBRE said the office market reported signs of improvement in the quarter ended September 2014, with the conclusion of numerous transactions towards the consolidation and expansion requirements of major corporate occupiers.

"Leasing activity remained upbeat with Bangalore, Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), and Mumbai leading the absorption of office space," it added.
IT/ITeS sector continued to account for a major portion of the commercial office space absorbed during the month.
"More than 30 per cent of the entire transacted space was led by domestic firms, such as Airtel, Aditya Birla Group and Tech Mahindra. Prominent corporates from the US and Eurozone also accounted for a large share of the transaction activity during September," CBRE said.
Similar to previous months, CBRE said the back-office operations were a leading driver of office space demand, with almost 90 per cent of the leased space in September meant for housing either back-office operations or a combination of back-office and front-office operations of various corporates.