NEW DELHI: Housing sales in the top 7 cities in the country increased by 29 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 to 58,290 units as against 45,200 units sold a year ago effectively breaching the pre-Covid level, noted Anarock.
In a report released Thursday, the real estate consultant said that the surge in sales was led by increased demand for property ownership in Mumbai (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) and Pune. MMR and Pune
together accounted for 53 per cent of housing sales in the quarter. Sales in MMR rose 46 per cent to 20,350 units while in Pune it rose by 46 per cent and 47 per cent to 10,550 units.
“MMR and Pune were the most active in this quarter since the limited-period stamp duty cuts and other sops and discounts substantially reduced acquisition cost,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman - ANAROCK Property Consultants.
“MMR’s homebuyers have responded proactively to the bottomed-out property prices in the country’s most expensive real estate market.” Besides stamp cut, reductions in home loan rates by most banks (to 6.7 per cent) and ongoing developer discounts made home ownership easy in Mumbai and in other cities as well.
According to Knight Frank India, Mumbai is recording a historic surge in property registrations driven by home sales in the last month of the lower stamp duty window that began on September 1, 2020 and closes on March 31, 2021.
The financial capital recorded property registration of 12,696 units at a daily rate of 529 units which is nearly 4.3 times higher than the daily rate of registration recorded at 123 units in March 2020. “After several years of anguish, the real estate sector in Mumbai is making an attempt to stand on its feet,” said Knight Frank India CMD Shishir Baijal.