Average housing prices up 3% across 7 cities: Anarock

Housing sales have jumped over two-fold during July-September period at 62,800 units across seven major cities on better demand driven by low mortgage rates and hiring in IT/ITeS sector, according to property consultant Anarock.

Sales of residential properties stood at 29,520 units in the year-ago period and 24,560 units in the previous quarter.

The seven cities tracked by Anarock are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

Housing prices appreciated by 3 per cent across the seven cities  to Rs 5,760 per square feet in Q3 of 2021 calendar year from Rs 5,600 per square feet in Q3, 2020.

"IT/ITeS continues to drive the bulk of housing demand in the top 7 cities," Anarock chairman Anuj Puri said.

He attributed the jump in housing sales to improved job security and robust hiring in the IT/ITeS and financial sectors, along with record-low home loan interest rates and growing home ownership sentiment.

"The ongoing WFH (Work For Home) culture continues to influence residential sentiment on two major fronts - overall housing demand and unit sizes," Puri said.

The fast-paced vaccination drive has helped in increasing site visits by prospective customers.

As per the data, housing sales in Delhi-NCR are estimated to have risen by 97 per cent to 10,220 units in July-September 2021 from 5,200 units in the year-ago period.

The MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) residential market witnessed over two fold jump in sales to 20,965 units as against 9,200 units in the July-September period of last year.

Housing sales in Bengaluru rose 58 per cent to 8,550 units from 5,400 units during the period under review.

Pune, a key market in Maharashtra, saw sales rising by 100 per cent to 9,705 units from 4,850 units.

Housing sales in Hyderabad jumped four times to 6,735 units in Q3, 2021 from just 1,650 units in the corresponding period of last year on increased supply.

Chennai saw sales of 3,405 units, more than two times from 1600 units in the year-ago period.

Housing sales in Kolkata increased by 99 per cent to 3,220 units during July-September period of 2021 calendar year from 1,600 units in the corresponding period of the previous year.

On supply side, the top seven cities saw new launches of  64,560 units during the third quarter of this calendar year, up 98 per cent from 32,530 units in Q3 2020.

Earlier, Anarock had projected housing to increase 30 per cent year-on-year to 179,527 units across seven cities in 2021 from 138,344 units last year.

In 2019 calendar year, pre-COVID, housing sales stood at 2,61,358 units across these seven cities.