Housing sales grow 12% in July-September to 54,000 units in 9 cities

New Delhi: Housing sales gained traction by 12 percent during July-September to 54,721 units in nine major cities as against the year-ago period, according to a report by online real estate portal PropTiger.

Sales, however, fell by 1 percent from 55,500 units in the previous quarter in nine cities - Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Pune.
Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru contributed around 57 per cent of total sales in the second quarter of this fiscal.

"Prices have remained range-bound across the cities except Hyderabad with 11 percent annual appreciation," News Corp- backed PropTiger said in its report 'Realty Decoded'.

Housing prices fell in Gurgaon and Noida by 2 percent and 4 percent, respectively, it added.

The report also highlighted that developers across the top nine cities of India have been reluctant to reduce residential prices and have instead been offering deferred and flexible payment schemes to bring in buyers.

"The market seems to be finding its base with sales hovering at around the 55,000-unit range for the past two quarters," said Anurag Jhanwar, Business Head (Consulting and Data Insights), PropTiger.Com and Makaan.Com.

"The increased focus of developers on execution and new launches mostly happening with prior approvals are expected to bring fence-sitters into the market," he added.

With incentives such as spot discounts, flexible payment plans, waiver of registration, stamp duty and other charges to free whitegoods, gold coins and luxury cars, buyers across the country have multiple choices this festive season, Jhanwar said.

The inventory overhang remained unchanged at 35 months, indicating that demand is moving in tandem with supply. Unsold inventory across the top nine cities declined, barring Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Pune.

PropTiger.Com is funded by News Corp, SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizon Ventures. With acquisition of brands such as Makaan.Com and OOBI, the company is offering full services from online search to assistance with transactions.

Since its inception, PropTiger.Com said it has sold homes worth Rs 10,000 crore to more than 15,000 customers.