Home sales grew 22% in Q1 2023

Hyderabad: Housing sales and new supply increased 22 per cent and 86 per cent, respectively, during January-March this year on better demand, according to residential brokerage firm PropTiger.com.

REA India, a full-stack real estate technology platform, owns Housing.com, PropTiger.com and Makaan.com. In its report titled Real Insight Residential - January-March 2023, PropTiger.com said that housing sales rose to 85,850 units across eight cities in January-March 2023 from 70,630 units in the year-ago period. New launches grew 86 per cent to 1,47,780 units -- highest in a quarter -- from 79,530 units.

Real estate consultant JLL India also said sales of apartments in January-March across seven major cities rose 20 per cent to 62,040 units, the highest quarterly sales in the last 15 years.

The data includes sales of only apartments. Rowhouses, villas and plotted developments are excluded from this analysis. "The Indian residential market saw significant growth in Q1 2023 due to a combination of factors, such as government policies, infrastructure growth and robust launches," the company said in a statement. Across the top 7 cities of India, sales of residential units in January-March went up by 15 per cent compared to the previous quarter and 20 per cent against the same quarter last year, with over 62,000 units sold. "This marks the highest quarterly sales in the last 15 years, indicating increased consumer confidence," JLL said.

Reports of other property consultants have also reported an increase in housing sales during the January-March quarter despite a rise in mortgage rates in the last one year. "The Indian housing market is witnessing a significant growth, with both sales and new launches on the rise. This is particularly noteworthy considering the challenging global environment and the hardening of interest rates on home loans in the domestic market," said Vikas Wadhawan, Group CFO of PropTiger.com, Housing.com and Makaan.com.

The surge in new launches also provides evidence of real estate developers confidence in the market and their commitment to cater to the rising demand. As per PropTiger data, Hyderabad witnessed maximum growth in sales of 55 per cent to 10,200 units during the January-March period from 6,560 units a year ago.

In Maharashtra's two key property markets, Mumbai and Pune, sales grew by 39 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively. While in Mumbai, sales of residential properties went up to 32,380 units in the first quarter of 2023 from 23,370 units in the same quarter of the previous year. Pune saw housing sales rising to 18,920 units in the first quarter of 2023 calendar year from 16,320 units in the year-ago period. Housing sales in Ahmedabad were up 31 pc to 7,250 units in January-March 2023 from 5,540 units in the year-ago period. Sales of residential properties in Chennai increased 10 per cent to 3,630 units from 3,290 units.

However, the residential market in Delhi-NCR, Kolkata and Bengaluru remained subdued and witnessed a drop in property demand on a yearly basis in the first quarter of 2023. In Delhi-NCR, housing sales dipped 24 per cent to 3,800 units in the March quarter from 5,010 units a year ago. Bengaluru witnessed a 3 per cent decline to 7,440 units from 7,680 units. Housing sales in Kolkata dipped 22 per cent to 2,230 units in the period under review from 2,860 units in the corresponding months of the previous year. REA India Head of Research Ankita Sood said: "The first quarter of 2023 definitely brings cheer to the residential realty market. Both demand and supply across the top eight cities have registered double-digit growth."