Realty Rouser: Unsold inventory hits bottomline

In an indication that recession has finally bottomed out, unsold inventory in the Real Estate sector across top cities has declined by 7% from a year ago as there is an uptick in sales of ready-to-move-in and nearly-completed houses, as per ANAROCK Property Consultants. Inventory levels plummeted to 33 months at the end of December from 47 months a year ago in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. While inventory levels in Bengaluru and Hyderabad fell to an all-time low of 17 months each, the Delhi-NCR still constitutes 52 months’ inventory overhang. Having absorbed a lot of the impact of various structural changes, India's real estate sector seemed poised to grow from the previous year. It has become crystal clear that end-users accelerated growth while investors shifted focus towards alternate asset classes such as commercial, retail and warehousing, which did fairly well during 2018. The top 7 cities recorded launches of around 195,300 new units in 2018 as against 146,860 units in 2017. The affordable segment commanded the lion’s share at 40%, with Mumbai Metropolitan Region, NCR, Pune and Bengaluru accounting for 74% of the new supply.