Housing sales on Akshay Tritiya negligible, say developers

Housing sales on the auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya were negligible compared to last year because of nationwide lockdown, according to property developers and consultants.

With the help of digital mode, builders and property brokerage firms did manage to achieve some sales bookings, especially in Western India, on Akshay Tritiya but nowhere close to last year, they said.

"There was not much momentum in sales as compared to last year owing to the lockdown, although we have received online queries in various cities yesterday," CREDAI National Chairman Jaxay Shah said.

"Post lockdown, we are hopeful of seeing some traction in the housing demand," he added.

Realty major Lodha group said in a statement that it sold 80 units on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya on April 26.

Housing brokerage firm PropTiger said it sold 30 units, with an average price of Rs 60 lakh, on Sunday and 300 units since lockdown.

"Akshay Tritiya is a day, which both buyers and sellers of real estate look forward to. Any big purchase such as the purchase of real estate or gold is considered auspicious on that day. We have always witnessed the sales of homes spike on that day and this Akshay Tritiya was no different despite the lockdown," said Dhruv Agarwala, the CEO of PropTiger and Housing.com.

"We saw close to 30 homes being sold this year on this day, primarily to home buyers who had already decided to purchase a home a few months ago and were waiting for this auspicious occasion," he added.

Mumbai-based brokerage firm The Guardian Real Estate Advisory said in a statement that it sold Rs 318 crore worth properties across three projects, including a commercial project of Wadhwa group at Mulund.

"While the numbers are satisfying, we firmly believe that without the lockdown these numbers would have been a minimum 20% higher," the company's Executive Director, Sales & Distribution Ram Naik said.