Housing sales may rise 16 pc in 2018; new supply up 32 pc: Anarock

Housing sales are estimated to rise by 16 per cent this year at 2.45 lakh units in seven major cities on better demand for affordable homes, property consultant Anarock said in a report.

During 2018, housing supply rose by 32 per cent to 1.93 lakh units in the seven cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

"The fallout of RERA and GST was still very visible in 2018, but the dust began to settle. With developers and brokers accepting the new market realities and beginning to fall in line, the residential sector began to regain visibility and viability," Anarock founder and chairman Anuj Puri said.

"Transparency and accountability never the defining characteristics of Indian real estate became the 'new normal' this year, and the market reacted positively," he said.

As per the data, the new launch supply across top seven cities is estimated to be 1,93,600 units by the end of 2018, up 32 per cent from 1,46,850 units in 2017. Affordable housing accounted for the lion's share of this supply with over 41 per cent of the new supply coming in this category.

"Housing sales in 2018 are estimated to be 2,45,500 units if we consider Q4 sales to match those of the preceding quarter at 2,11,140 units in 2017, this is an annual increase of 16 per cent," the report said.

Unsold housing stock stood at 6.87 lakh units at the end of September 2018, down 8 per cent from 7,44,000 units in Q3 2017.

Average property prices remained largely static across the top seven cities in 2018. In fact, average property prices at the pan-India level saw only one per cent increase to Rs 5,545 per sq ft in 2018 from Rs 5,491 per sq ft in 2017.

"The issue of stalled projects showed few signs of resolution in 2018. However, a number of landmark court judgments strongly indicated that the Indian legal system is awake and aware of the problem," Anarock said.

The consultant said that affordable housing, backed by a series of government sops during 2018, kept the residential supply momentum ticking.

"In sharp contrast to earlier years where the 'affordable' tag was considered down-market and avoidable, 2018 saw almost every real estate developer regardless of market footprint and previous category orientations eager to take a bite out of the affordable housing pie," Puri said.