Majority of delayed housing units fall in upper mid-segment, premium categories: JLL

Delhi-NCR and Mumbai account for 84 per cent of the total delayed residential projects across seven major cities in the country, and most of the apartments fall in upper mid-segment and premium categories, according to property consultant JLL.

In its research report, JLL has considered houses with price of up to Rs 75 lakh as 'affordable' and 'mid-segment' category for all cities except Mumbai where the threshold has been kept at Rs 1 crore.

"Against the common myth that the entire residential real estate segment is troubled, it is the upper mid-segment and premium property projects that are majorly delayed," said Samantak Das, Chief Economist and Head of Research & REIS, JLL India.

According to JLL data, the average price of delayed residential units stood at Rs 1.99 crore for Mumbai, Rs 95 lakh in Bangalore, Rs 94 lakh in Hyderabad, Rs 87 lakh in Chennai and Rs 75 lakh in Delhi-NCR.

In Pune and Kolkata, the average prices of delayed units are Rs 65.62 lakh and Rs 28.83 lakh respectively.

"Although it is the affordable and mid-segment categories which form a substantial proportion of the residential sector activity, they do not account for much of the delayed projects except in select cities like Kolkata and Pune," said Shradha Agarwal, Research Analyst, JLL India.

While the total value of delayed/stalled projects is Rs 4.62 lakh crore, the consultant said it would be misleading to say that it is across the entire spectrum of housing categories.

"The reality is not all that grim as the funds are mainly stuck in projects belonging to the upper-mid and premium categories," Das said.

JLL said that the total number of residential units classified as delayed/stalled in the top seven cites stood at 4.54 lakh. However, as high as 84 per cent of these units are present in two major metro cities: Delhi NCR (62 per cent) and Mumbai (22 per cent). The percentage share of rest of the cities is in single digit.

"Going forward, developers should take cognizance of the situation at hand and accordingly realign their marketing strategies so that their launches are in sync with people's affordability and demand," he added.

For its research, the consultant has considered the residential projects launched on or before 2014 which are still 'under-construction' as delayed/stalled projects. The total number of flats/apartments in these projects are categorised as delayed/stalled residential units.