India housing sales surge 25% in H1 2018: Credai-JLL report

Berlin: Housing sales in India’s top seven cities have revived post demonetisation to rise by 25% in the first six months of this year, according to a joint report by realtors’ body Credai and consultant JLL.

The report was released at Credai’s 18th annual international convention held in Berlin, being attended by over 1,000 developers from across India.

“Sales have picked up by 25% in first half of this year. All cities have shown positive growth,” JLL India CEO and country head Ramesh Nair said.

Housing sales stood at 64,080 units during January-June 2018 as against 51,452 units in the year-ago period.

The seven cities tracked by Credai-JLL are NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune.

Nair said the fence sitters have now come back to the market with flats becoming affordable after price correction.

“Sluggishness in housing sales, which continued for last 3-4 years, is now over,” he added.

While the Credai-JLL study has reported 25% increase in housing sales, Knight Frank India had earlier this month said that sales growth in eight major cities rose slightly by 3% to 1.24 lakh units.

Credai chairman Getamber Anand said buyers confidence has improved with the implementation of new real estate law RERA from May last year.

The association president Jaxay Shah said the housing market is recovering post demonetisation, RERA and the GST that had an adverse impact on sales.

Shah demanded that the GST rate should be brought down from 12% currently to boost sales of under-construction homes.

According to the report, Mumbai witnessed the highest sales volume totalling to 13,659 units in H1 2018, up 11% from 12,309 units in the year-ago period.

Bengaluru followed closely with 13,382 units and recorded a marginal increase of 2% in sales year-on-year.

Pune saw a minor increase of 2% in sales volume at 9,988 units. Delhi–NCR saw a rise of 26% in sales owing to rise in new launches and returning confidence in the market.

The market witnessed sales of 10,383 units during the first half of the year.

Kolkata topped the percentage chart for y-o-y growth in sales with a record 280% rise (albeit on lower volume) to 2,955 units in the first half of 2018.

Housing sales in Chennai rose to 8,237 units from 5,255 units, while Hyderabad saw a surge of 182 per cent to 5,476 units during the period under the review.

Established in 1999, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai) is the apex body for private real estate developers in India, representing 11,940 developers through 23 states and 203 city chapters across the country.