New supply of residential units may rise 44% to 3.4L units

New Delhi: Fresh supply of residential properties is expected to rise 44 per cent this year across seven cities to 3.4 lakh units as developers look to tap an increase in demand, according to property consultant Anarock. Its data showed that new launches stood at 2.65 lakh units during January-September this year across primary markets of seven cities - Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

The current trends indicate that launches in these cities will exceed 3.4 lakh units in the entire 2022 calendar year, the consultant added. "Total new launches in 2022 will remain lower than the previous peak of 2014, which saw approximately 5.45 lakh homes launched across the top 7 cities," Anarock said. As per the data, new home launches stood at 4,64,060 units in 2013, 5,45,230 units in 2014, 3,89,970 units in 2015, 2,49,840 units in 2016, 1,46,860 units in 2017, 1,95,300 units in 2018, 2,36,560 units in 2019, 1,27,960 units in 2020 and 2,36,690 units in 2021.

New launches fell to nearly 1.28 lakh units during the 2020 calendar year as demand for residential properties was severely impacted due to the Covid pandemic and nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the disease. However, the fresh supply increased during 2021 and this year with strong revival in demand. Signature Global Founder & Chairman Pradeep Aggarwal said the real estate sector is witnessing tremendous growth after two consecutive lackluster years of demand amid pandemic.

"Economic activity is in full swing and thanks to pent-up demand, we are witnessing significant increase in transactions across the segment. Unsold inventory has come down significantly and as a result, we are witnessing a number of new projects that are being launched, keeping in consideration the demand. We expect the trend to continue," he said.

On the demand side, Anarock said that housing sales are likely to hit an all-time high this year at 3.6 lakh units in seven major cities on a strong demand across all price categories despite hardening of interest rates on home loans and property rates. The previous high was recorded in 2014 when housing sales stood at 3,42,980 units across primary markets (fresh sales only) of seven major cities.

As per the data of Anarock, sales of residential properties have reached 2,72,710 units during January-September period of the current calendar year and already breached the number of 2019, pre-Covid year, of 2,61,360 units. Housing sales stood at 3,18,400 units in 2013; 3,42,980 units in 2014; 3,08,250 in 2015; 2,39,260 units in 2016; 2,11,140 units in 2017; 2,48,310 units in 2018; 2,61,360 units in 2019, 1,38,340 units in 2020; and 2,36,520 units in 2021. In the last 18 months, all major listed real estate developers have been reporting decent to high growth in their sales bookings numbers.