Housing sales hit an all-time high this year to nearly 3.65 lakh units across seven major cities, beating the previous high of 2014, on strong demand for residential properties despite a hike in mortgage rates, according to Anarock.
The prices of residential properties have risen in the range of 4-7 per cent primarily due to an increase in the input costs and demand comeback post-COVID, it said.
Releasing the demand-supply data of India's top residential primary (fresh sale) markets, property consultant Anarock said that the housing sales rose 54 per cent this year to 364,900 units as against 236,500 units in 2021 across the seven cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.
The last peak was seen in 2014 when 3.43 lakh units were sold across the top 7 cities.
The MMR market clocked the highest sales of 109,700 units in 2022, followed by NCR at 63,700 units.
According to the data, the housing sales in Delhi-NCR rose 59 per cent to 63,712 units in 2022, from 40,053 units in the previous year.
In Maharashtra, the MMR market saw a 44 per cent increase in sales to 109,733 units this year, from 76,396 units in the 2021 calendar year, while Pune witnessed 59 per cent rise to 57,146 units from 35,975 units.
Housing sales in Bengaluru went up 50 per cent to 49,478 units this year from 33,084 units during 2021.
In Hyderabad, the sales of residential properties were up 87 per cent to 47,487 units in 2022, from 25,406 units last year.
The sales of residential properties in Chennai rose 29 per cent to 16,097 units from 12,525 units.
The Kolkata market reported a 62 per cent increase in sales to 21,220 units this year, from 13,077 units last year.
On fresh supply, Anarock said that new launches across the top seven cities saw a 51 per cent annual rise to 357,600 units in 2022, from 236,700 units in 2021.
MMR and Hyderabad witnessed the maximum new launches in 2022, together comprising nearly 54 per cent share of the total new launches in the year.
Anarock Group chairman said, "2022 has been a phenomenal year for residential real estate despite all headwinds including rising property prices, interest rate hikes and geopolitical tensions etc."
"While it was widely anticipated that the rise in property costs and interest rates towards the second half of 2022 would have a cascading impact on the residential sales, Q4, 2022 (October-December) remained quite robust with as many as 92,160 units sold in the period," Puri added.
Unsold inventory declined 1 per cent in the December quarter across the top 7 cities to 630,953 units.
Gurugram-based Signature Global chairman Pradeep Aggarwal said, "During 2022, the real estate witnessed a sharp recovery amid a surge in demand from end users.
"While all the segments of the sector reaped benefits of the surge in demand, it is the affordable and mid-segment which stood out."
Harsh Trehan, managing director, Trehan Group, said the real estate sector went through a torrid time since 2013-14, but the year 2022 turned out to be a watershed year for the real estate sector.