Housing sales rose 87 per cent in January-September across seven cities to 2,72,709 units and breached the transactions clocked in entire 2019 pre-COVID year on strong demand, according to Anarock.

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Sales stood at 1,45,651 units in the January-September period of 2021.

Property consultant Anarock, which is one of the leading housing brokerage firms, tracks primary sales of seven major cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.

As per the data, housing sales in these seven cities increased to 2,72,709 units during January-September this year from 1,45,651 units in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The January-September figure of this calendar year is higher than the 2,61,358 units sold during entire 2019.

Sales plunged to 1,38,344 units in 2020 due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 induced lockdowns.

India's primary housing market revived last year on pent up demand coupled with incentives offered by some state governments like Maharashtra in the form of lower stamp duty.

As a result, sales rose to 2,36,516 units in 2021 and the momentum has continued so far this year.

The impact of rise in interest rates on home loans -- from a decadal low of around 6.5 per cent to over 8 per cent now -- has not been felt so far on the housing market. The RBI has increased the repo rate by 190 basis points since May this year to contain inflation.

Housing prices too have gone up by at least 10 per cent in the last one year.

Experts believe that the pandemic has positively impacted the concept of home ownership, which along with improved affordability index, is driving sales.

According to the Anarock data, the sales of residential properties in Delhi-NCR more than doubled to 49,138 units in January-September from 22,478 units in the year-ago period.

In the MMR, sales increased by 67 per cent to 81,315 units from 48,716 units.

Bengaluru saw 81 per cent increase in housing sales to 37,645 units from 20,780 units, while Pune witnessed 69 per cent rise to 40,598 units from 24,043 units.

Housing sales in Hyderabad jumped over two-fold to 35,980 units from 14,376 units. In Chennai, housing sales rose by 57 per cent to 12,290 units from 7,843 units.

Housing sales in Kolkata during the first nine months of this year jumped more than two-times to 15,743 units from 7,415 units.

Anarock said its housing sales data includes all residential projects (apartments, villas, row-houses, villament and independent floors), excluding plotted development projects.

"The momentum of both housing sales and new launches stayed strong in the top 7 cities in Q3 2022 (July-September) despite major headwinds. The appetite for homeownership has remained undeterred, with maximum sales being driven by end-users," Anarock Chairman Anuj Puri said.

He expects the trend to continue during the ongoing festive season.

To maintain the sales momentum during the festive season, Puri said real estate developers have rolled out lucrative offers and those are being received well in the market.

Builders are offering cash discounts and freebies.

Some of the players are also bearing partly home loan interest, GST and stamp duty charges to drive sales during the festive fourth quarter, considered as the strongest in the calendar year.