Real estate records 20% spurt in housing sales

In the backdrop of conducive government initiatives and incentives offered by developers, the Indian realty sector has recorded a 20% year-on-year (y-o-y) surge in sales of housing units from January to March and last quarter of the just concluded fiscal, 99acres.com report said revealing that Hyderabad and Bengaluru reported relatively slow recovery due to the resurgence of covid-19 cases. Maneesh Upadhyaya, chief business officer, informed that Chennai and Kolkata surpassed pre-covid demand levels and Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Pune showed consistent growth despite the second wave of covid-19 in March 2021. The first quarter of 2021 witnessed a resurgence in sales volume across metro cities, particularly Pune and Mumbai, amid a stamp duty cut till March. In line with the recovering market sentiment, site visits and sales, pricing power returned to sellers. Based on properties listed on 99acres, none of the eight metro cities recorded a downward revision in average listing prices of residential apartments in Jan-Mar 2021 against the previous quarter. Buyer responses also reported a 7% surge in the same period on 99acres. Owner listings posted on 99acres also went up by 20% in January-March 2021 against October-December 2020. The green shoots of recovery seen so far will have to stand the test of time as there is a steep surge in covid-19 cases and the resultant restrictions in some cities may impact economic recovery, project construction timelines and buyer site visits.