CHENNAI: As both home buyers and developers remain cautious and risk-averse following the slowdown of the economy, housing absorption has dipped drastically by 35 per cent in Chennai.
The city has added around 2,530 units in third-quarter of 2019 against 3,890 units in second-quarter of 2019 which shows a quarterly decrease of 35 per cent, according to a report released on Monday by Anarock Property Consultants.
Similarly, the city also recorded a year on year dip of 48 per cent as last year of the third quarter, when the city added 4,850 housing units.
However, Anuj Puri, Chairman of Anarock Property Consultants says the slew of economy-boosting measures by the government to spur growth across sectors is likely to give the housing sector a leg-up in the festive season and the ensuing quarters.
He added that the real need of the hour was the recent corporate tax cut by the government that will spur investments from both domestic and foreign investors.
"As evidenced by the quick revival of the stock markets, these measures have already bolstered all-round sentiment. Housing is intensely sentiment-driven and we expect the numbers to improve significantly going forward. Most importantly for the sector, we are seeing a gradual revival of investor confidence," he says.
Interestingly, housing sales in the third quarter of 2019 saw a quarterly decline of 20 per cent across the top seven cities from 68,600 units in the second quarter of 2019 to 55,080 units in the third quarter of 2019.
New launches fell by 34 per cent over the same period from 69,020 units in the second quarter of 2019 to 45,230 units in the third quarter of 2019. On a year-on-year basis, housing sales fell by 18 per cent while new launches fell by 13 per cent in the third quarter of 2019 over the corresponding quarter in 2018.
In terms of sales, Hyderabad saw the maximum decline of 26 per cent during the quarter with housing absorption falling from 4,430 units in Q2 2019 to 3,280 units in Q3 2019.
The Anarock report says sales in Chennai and Kolkata in the third quarter of 2019 decreased by 12 per cent each over the previous quarter, clocking in at approximately 2,620 units and 3,120 units respectively.
On a year-on-year basis, Chennai saw sales decline by 11 per cent and Kolkata saw a 27 per cent fall.
The report also stated that unsold inventory in top cities declined meagerly by 1 per cent – from 6.66 lakh units in second quarter of 2019 to 6.56 lakh units in third quarter of 2019.