Home sales dip 1% in Jan-June across top 8 cities: Study

CHENNAI: Housing sales fell marginally by 1 per cent during January-June period this year, while gross leasing of office space rose 3 per cent across eight major cities, according to Knight Frank India.

Housing prices increased 2–10 per cent year-on-year.

Releasing its bi-annual report for India’s top eight realty market on Tuesday, real estate consultant Knight Frank India said housing sales have dipped 1 per cent to 1,56,640 units in January-June from 1,58,705 units in the year-ago period.

In contrast, gross office space leasing increased 3 per cent to 26.1 million square feet from 25.3 million square feet.

Knight Frank India CMD Shishir Baijal told reporters that housing and office markets across major cities have remained steady in the first half of this calendar year despite rise in interest rates on home loans and global headwinds.

On housing market, he said a strong positive consumer sentiment was observed and sales have remained above 1.5 lakh units consistently in the six- month period.

Baijal noted that the share of sale of luxury homes in the overall housing sales has risen. The housing demand is driven by mid and premium segment while the share of affordable housing in sales has come down.

As per the Knight Frank data, housing sales in Mumbai fell 8 per cent to 40,798 units in January-June from 44,200 units in the year-ago period.

However, the gross office space leasing in the financial capital rose 9 per cent to 3.2 million square feet from 3 million square feet.

Housing sales in Chennai rose 3 per cent to 7,150 units from 6,951 units. Interestingly, the leasing of office space in Chennai jumped over two-fold to 4.5 million square feet from 2.2 million square feet.