Housing Sales Rise 1% In 2019, Launches Up 23%: Knight Frank

Sales in the residential real estate segment in eight major cities of the country rose marginally, by 1 per cent in 2019 to over 2.45 lakh units, a report by Knight Frank India said on Tuesday.

"The residential segment in top eight cities of India demonstrated unexpected resilience and recorded a marginal growth of 1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in sales volume in 2019. Total sales volume was recorded at 245,861 units in 2019, over 242,328 in 2018 as affordability improved, and developers aligned themselves with the needs of home buyers by reducing ticket-sizes and unit-sizes in a bid to encourage sales," it said.

On the supply front, however, there was major growth with 23 per cent increase in new launches at 2,23,325 units.

The residential sector also performed well in terms of unsold inventory as the unsold stock of residences across the eight major cities declined by 5 per cent to 4,45,836 units.

Mumbai had the highest quantum of unsold inventory at 1,45,301 units, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) at 1,22,084 units and Bengaluru at 78,414 units.

Contrary to the tepid demand sentiments in residential segment, the office market marked a significant growth last year, as per Knight Frank India's 'India Real Estate: H2 2019'.

"The office market recorded its historic best year in terms of transaction volumes in 2019, recording 60.6 million square feet, backed by a surge in leasing activity by the Information Technology segment," it said.

New completions in the segment surged by 56 per cent in 2019 and was recorded at 61.3 million square feet marginally surpassing demand, the report added.

Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India said: "2019 can be seen as a relatively positive year for the real estate sector. The historic rise in the office transactions is a significant growth indicator for the office market as it represents the continued commitment of domestic and global corporations in the country's growth potential despite the ongoing economic slowdown."

He added that the residential sector also overcame the negative market outlook by registering a growth in sales volumes as well as new launches.

The report is based on a survey carried out across NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.