Housing Sales Up 3% In March Quarter: Report

Sale of residential apartments during the January-March quarter of 2019 rose by 3 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis to 33,000 units across seven major cities in the country, according to a report by real estate services and investment firm, CBRE.

According to the report, new launches during the period under review also stood at 33,000 units, up 14 per cent on a quarterly basis.

"While policy reforms such as Real Estate - Regulation and Development Act 2016 (RERA) and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) brought in the much-needed transparency in the residential real estate, the present upward movement is also credited to proactive and customer-centric initiatives undertaken by real estate developers. 

"The overall impact of both these reforms and proactive approach of the developers resulted in new launches and sales witnessing a yearly increase of about 11 per cent and 19 per cent respectively in 2018," it said.

The broad stabilisation of capital values and increasing disposable income also created a suitable environment for the recovery of the residential sector, it added.

Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi-NCR were the dominant markets, with a share of almost 70-75 per cent in both new launches and sales. The other cities where the survey was carried out were Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata.