81% express concern over house affordability, Mumbai bucks the trend:Survey

Mumbai buyers remain confident thanks to strong fundamentals and long-term prospects

Rising home prices remain a big challenge for property seekers across India, according to the latest ANAROCK Consumer Sentiment Survey for the first half of 2025. The online survey, conducted between January and June this year with about 8,250 participants across 14 cities, shows that 81 per cent of buyers are deeply concerned about soaring residential prices.

 

Mumbai stands apart

Interestingly, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), India’s costliest real estate market, emerged as an outlier. Only 39 per cent of respondents in MMR expressed high concern about affordability. A sizeable 20 per cent said they were not worried at all, while 41 per cent were only moderately concerned.

 

Industry experts attribute this resilience to unique factors such as limited land availability, strong inward migration, and ongoing infrastructure upgrades.

 

As Anuj Puri, chairman of ANAROCK Group, noted, “MMR has near-matchless fundamentals and long-term capital appreciation prospects, making buyer confidence here particularly striking.” 

 

Affordability shrinks further

The survey underscores the continuing decline of affordable housing:

 

• Only 17 per cent of buyers now prefer homes under Rs 45 lakh, down sharply from 40 per cent in 2020. Supply has also dwindled, affordable housing made up just 12 per cent of new launches in H1 2025, compared to 40 per cent in 2019. 
• Among those still considering this segment, 62 per cent expressed dissatisfaction with available options, citing poor location (92 per cent), weak construction quality (90 per cent), and very small unit sizes (77 per cent).

 

Shift towards premium homes

Buyer preferences are increasingly leaning towards higher budgets:

 

• 36 per cent favour homes priced between Rs 90 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore, marking a tilt towards premium and luxury. 
• Another 25 per cent prefer mid-segment homes between Rs 45 lakh and Rs 90 lakh. 
• At the same time, bigger homes remain in demand, with 45 per cent of respondents preferring 3BHK units.

 

Ready homes lose favour

The survey also highlights a clear trend reversal in demand for ready-to-move-in properties. In H1 2025, the ratio of demand for ready homes versus new launches stood at 16:29, a sharp contrast to H1 2020, when the ratio was 46:18 in favour of ready homes.

 

End-users dominate market

 

More than 65 per cent of respondents said they are entering the market as end-users rather than investors.

 

Bengaluru had the highest share of investors (43 per cent), while Delhi-NCR recorded the lowest at 26 per cent.

 

Real estate still top investment choice

Despite concerns over affordability, 63 per cent of respondents picked real estate as their most preferred investment asset, an increase of four percentage points from last year’s survey. Millennials (70 per cent) and nearly half of Gen-X participants (46 per cent) said they intend to use investment gains to purchase homes soon.