Residential realty records resounding recovery

Residential real estate sales during Jan-March 2021 period recovered to more than 90% of the volumes witnessed in Q1 2020 across the top seven cities in the country. Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Pune surpassed the sales volumes of Q1 2020 whereas Mumbai has consistently been the largest contributor to sales in the last four quarters. In Q1 2021, Mumbai accounted for 23% of the sales, followed by Delhi NCR with a share of 21%. Kolkata witnessed the maximum increase in sales activity in Q1 2021 in comparison to the fourth quarter of 2020. In Kolkata, the off-take of residential units in Q1 2021 was driven by South Suburbs (Joka, Kasba, Behala, Jadavpur, Tollygunje) and East Suburbs (EM Bypass, Rajarhat, Topsia) with a combined contribution of more than 70%. This is because there is a time extension to claim the tax holiday on profits from affordable housing projects until March 2022. The housing loan going below 7% for the first time in the last decade also triggered sales in all segments in the residential real estate. The buoyancy in the market manifested in the form of low mortgage rates and stable prices are expected to continue and attract fence-sitters and serious end users. Siva Krishnan, MD of Residential Services (India), JLL informed that the first quarter of 2021 witnessed new launches of 33,953 residential units, a jump of 27% over the last quarter of 2020. Hyderabad continued to dominate new launches and accounted for more than a fourth of the overall launches during the quarter. Bengaluru, which formed more than 16% of the new launches followed and markets of Delhi NCR and Chennai witnessed a substantial increase in launch activity during the quarter. New launches are still at 84% when compared to the pre-Covid levels of Q1 2020. Developers across the markets under review remain focused on the completion of under-construction projects and clearing their existing inventory.