Kolkata sees 54% jump in new home launches in Jan-Mar17

Kolkata: The city witnessed a jump in new home launches by 53.9 percent at 3,801 units in January-March 2017 quarter against that in the previous quarter, a real estate research firm said.

Developers are anticipating higher demand in the coming quarters though absorption remained under stress for Q1, declining by 3.8 percent due to weak demand, a real estate data, research and analytics firm PropEquity release said.

Unsold stock in Kolkata has reduced to 0.5 percent at 44,487 units and price eased by 1.5 percent, it said.

PropEquity said home launches dipped to 19.46 percent across top eight cities in the first quarter of 2017 from 28,428 units to 22,897 units.

The demand and new launches of residential projects slowed down in Q1 as impact of demonetisation on the real estate sector tapered down faster than the expectations.

"Real estate sector in India, especially housing is going through a critical transition phase post demonetization as transaction activity has slowed down," PropEquity founder and CEO Samir Jasuja said.

The recent budgetary announcement to grant industry status to affordable housing and allowing banks to invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) will have a strong positive impact on overall sentiment in the sector, he said.