New Delhi: Sale of housing units across seven major cities in the country declined by 13 per cent on quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis during the April-June quarter of 2019, an Anarock report said on Tuesday.
Sales declined to 68,600 units from 78,520 units in the January-March quarter, the report said.
"As anticipated, residential real estate activity remained largely tepid during the second quarter of 2019 in the backdrop of the general elections during the period but the recent Union Budget sops for the affordable sector may give the much-needed push to the segment henceforth," it said.
Among the cities, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune witnessed the maximum drop in housing sales at 18 per cent, 16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively, while in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and the National Capital Region (NCR) sales declined by 11 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.
In Chennai and Kolkata, sales fell by 13 and 12 per cent from the previous quarter.
The real estate consultancy firm in its report said that launches also declined by 2 per cent across the seven cities during the period under review to 69,000 units as opposed to 70,480 units in the first quarter of 2019.
"Key cities contributing to Q2 2019 new unit launches were NCR, MMR, Bangalore and Pune, together accounting for 85 per cent of this quarter's addition," it said.
Further, as sales remained tepid, unsold housing stock remained largely stagnant during Q2 2019 as against Q1 2019 at 6.65 lakh units, it added.
Affordable housing saw a quarterly decline of total new supply by 20 per cent from 32,060 units in Q1 2019 to 25,580 units in Q2 2019.
"Despite high demand for budget homes in the major cities, builders find it challenging to build housing in the incentivized Rs 45 lakh budget range. The hope that the government would revise the price definition of affordable housing in the top cities has remained unfulfilled. For a city like MMR, a budget of Rs 45 lakh is far too low," it said.
On the outlook for the sector, Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants said: "The government's Budget ‘bonanza' for affordable housing an additional Rs 1.5 lakh income tax deduction on interest paid on home loans availed till March 2020 – will incite builders to increase their supply in this category so as to attract first-time home buyers. Thus, we may see an increase in supply in this category in the coming quarters."