Slowing economy hits luxury real estate

Amid a slowing economy, luxury real estate continues to witness weak demand as a report by Anarock Property Consultants shows that inventory level in the segment rose by 10 per cent last year.

Across seven major cities in the country, the total unsold stock of apartments priced more than Rs 1.5 crore by the end if last year was 89,000 units against 81,290 units in 2018.

"Snapped up like hot cakes by investors in previous years, luxury housing sales are still in the doldrums and hinging largely on end-user sales. Even after three years of demonetisation, despite having the lowest share of overall unsold stock in the top seven cities, it remains the worst-performing of all budget categories," said Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants.

As per the report, Hyderabad and Pune saw unsold luxury stock increase by a whopping 58 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively during the period under review.

"Hyderabad's pent-up luxury stock rose from 3,000 units in 2018 to nearly 4,740 units in 2019. In Pune, it increased from 2,750 units in 2018 to 4,290 units in 2019," the report said.

The National Capital Region (NCR) saw its unsold luxury stock increase by 17 per cent in the period. The unsold luxury stock in NCR was the second-highest after MMR, with around 18,400 units by 2019-end.

In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), inventory in the high-end realty increased by 2 per cent to 48,970 units by 2019-end. The region added 11,250 luxury units last year.

In Chennai, unsold luxury stock increased by 33 per cent to nearly 3,300 units and that in Bengaluru rose by 6 per cent to 7,470 units by the end of 2019.

Kolkata, however, bucked the subdued trend and the luxury stock in the city declined by 10 per cent to 2,050 units.

The total unsold stock across segments is nearly 6,48,400 units in the top seven cities.

Affordable housing (priced below Rs 40 lakh) comprised the maximum share at about 36 per cent in the overall stock, followed by 31 per cent in the mid-segment (Rs 40-80 lakh).

Premium housing (Rs 80 lakh-1.5 cr) comprised 19 per cent of the unsold stock while the rest 14 per cent was luxury housing.

Mid-segment homes priced between reduced the maximum unsold stock in 2019 by 15 per cent, from nearly 2.27 lakh units in 2018 to around 2.02 lakh units in 2019-end.