'Sales of under-construction flats dip 16% in FY20 in 9 cities; demand of completed units up 19%'

Housing sales declined by 11 per cent during the last fiscal to 3.22 lakh units across nine cities, but demand for ready-to-move-in flats increased by over 19 per cent, driven by nil GST and no risk of any delays, according to PropTiger.

The sales of under-construction apartments dipped 16 per cent to 2,58,281 units in the the last fiscal as against 3,08,113 units in 2018-19.

US-based News Corp-backed housing brokerage firm, in its report Real Insight Q4'2020, also highlighted that the share of completed apartments in the total housing sales grew to 20 per cent during the last fiscal from 15 per cent in the previous financial year.

As per the data, total housing sales declined to 3,22,667 units across nine cities during the 2019-20 fiscal compared to 3,62,021 units sold in 2018-19.

However, the sale of completed units rose to 64,386 units last fiscal from 53,908 units.

PropTiger tracks property markets of nine cities, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram (includes Bhiwadi, Dharuhera and Sohna), Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai (includes Navi Mumbai and Thane), Pune and Noida (includes Greater Noida, Noida Extension and Yamuna Expressway).

"Housing demand remained subdued during FY'20 because of the slowdown in the country's economic growth. The global outbreak of coronavirus during the January-March quarter added to the woes faced by the Indian real estate sector over the last few years. Housing sales are generally higher in the second half of the fiscal and hence the impact of COVID-19 was more pronounced.

"With under-construction projects likely to be delayed because of the nationwide lockdown, we strongly believe that customers' preference towards completed units will further strengthen,"said Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, PropTiger.com, Housing.com and Makaan.com.

The consultant said the demand for ready-to-move-in residential properties is growing as customers have become risk averse because of uncertainties involved in the completion of under-construction flats.

The share of ready-to-move-in residential properties in the overall housing sales may rise to reach 30 per cent during the current fiscal, it said.

At the end of the 2019-20, these nine cities had 7,38,898 units of unsold inventories, of which 20 per cent were completed ones.

PropTiger pointed out that project delays by multiple builders have shaken buyers' confidence in the property market.

However, it said the Rs 25,000 crore stressed assets fund, which has been created by the government to help complete over 1,500 stalled housing projects across the country, would go a long way in bridging the trust deficit between developers and prospective homebuyers.

The consultant said that housing demand is likely to further shift to branded as well as organised developers and brokers.

COVID-19 pandemic would also accelerate the adoption of new digital tools and technologies by both property developers and brokers to sell housing units.