Housing sales in Kolkata down 20% in H2 2016: Knight Frank

The city also witnessed an 8% dip in new residential housing projects launch in H2 2016

Housing sales in Kolkata dropped 20% during the second half of 2016 (July-Dec) as compared to the year-ago period, global property consultant Knight Frank said in a research report.

The city also witnessed an 8% dip in new residential housing projects launch in the second half of 2016, it said.

Chief economist of Knight Frank India Samantak Das said that the decline had been mainly due to a halt in cash transactions post-demonetisation.

He said that the other reason was that buyers were expecting a drop in interest rates, which was actually happening at the time.

The weighted average price remained stagnant in the second half, indicating that the market had almost come to a standstill.

In the first half of 2016, the Kolkata market remained relatively stable with expectations of improvement in the second half, the report said. But, Das said that the demonetisation announcement changed the market scenario in the second half of 2016 as developers and buyers refrained from making any property related decisions.

Das said that decline in Kolkata was lower than other cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru.