Hyderabad market sees sharp rise in new project launches

As housing markets across India gathered themselves up to beat the coronavirus-caused economic gloom in the third quarter of 2020, Hyderabad real estate acted as the trailblazer for the residential market in south India, registering sharp rise in supply of new units during July-September period, a report by real estate brokerage firm PropTiger showed.

According to Real Insight Q3 2020, a quarterly analysis of India's eight prime residential markets by real estate brokerage firm, Hyderabad was the only city that saw new supply more than doubling up to 4,264 units during the three-month period when compared to the previous quarter.

In fact, an overall national analysis shows Pune was the only city which saw higher new launch numbers than Hyderabad in Q3 2020. On a quarterly (108 per cent) as well as annual (4 per cent) basis, new supply numbers showed an improvement in Hyderabad.

In Bengaluru, on the other hand, new supply declined on both the counts (-36 per cent QoQ; -72 per cent YoY), with builders launching only 2,086 units during the quarter. In Chennai, only 947 new units were launched during the quarter, which saw the phases unlocking of the economy before the much-anticipated festive season that is likely to provide a boost to the residential real estate sector.

Bengaluru led its southern peers in terms of home sales during the quarter ended September 30, with the sale of 4,825, followed by Hyderabad (3,260 units) and Chennai (2,317 units). As on September 30, the three cities together had an inventory stock of 140,728, with Bengaluru contributing the highest to this stock. While Hyderabad has the lowest inventory overhang (25 months) among the eight markets included in the analysis, Bengaluru (36) and Chennai (39) have comparatively higher overhang.

However, the inventory overhang for Hyderabad is much higher now than the level seen last year- overhang has increased to 25 months in Q3 2020, as compared to 13 months in the same period previous year.

Inventory overhang is the estimated time period within which developers will be able to sell off the current stock. This projection is made keeping in view the current sales velocity.

Barring Hyderabad, where average property rate now stands at Rs 5,593 per square foot after undergoing a 6 per cent increase in the past one year, value growth has been nearly flat in the other two cities. Bengaluru and Chennai both saw prices increasing slightly since September 2019. While the average psf rate in Bengaluru is 5,310, it is Rs 5,240 in Chennai.

"Consumers continue to perceive real-estate as the most stable asset and a number of them are looking to upgrade their homes as working from home is likely to continue. We are optimistic that sales during the festive season will be encouraging and will help drive further recovery in the sector," said Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan.com & PropTiger.com.