NEW DELHI: India’s urban housing market is sitting atop a swelling pile of unsold stock—5.59 lakh units across the top seven metros, as per Anarock’s Q1 2025 report. Though the total is 4% lower year-on-year, the numbers mask a deeper structural problem—homes are being built, but not for those who actually need them.
Mumbai tops the chart with 1.8 lakh unsold units and an overhang of 16 months. A major contributor: a 36% jump in luxury housing stock, driven by misplaced optimism about post-Covid demand. Developers have resumed high-end launches, but buyers haven’t returned in equal measure. The result: unsold towers and frozen capital.
Delhi–NCR is barely doing better. With 84,500 unsold units, the region saw a 78% spike in luxury inventory. The public housing sector is equally troubled. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) failed to sell even a third of its stock in the 2025 scheme—just 2,628 flats sold out of 9,887 by February. In Narela, nearly 40,000 flats lie unsold, despite deep discounts and government efforts like feeder buses. The DDA is now saddled with Rs 18,000 crore worth of unsold inventory and a Rs 9,600 crore deficit.
Hyderabad, once the model for affordability, now holds nearly 98,000 unsold homes—a 177% increase in five years. Most alarming: it’s the only city where unsold affordable housing stock actually rose.
Bengaluru and Pune offer rare bright spots. With 58,700 and 81,400 unsold units, respectively, both cities have held absorption steady. Bengaluru saw a 51% drop in unsold affordable homes, and its overhang is a healthy 11 months. The city’s tech-driven housing market still aligns with real incomes. Pune, while slightly higher in inventory, has seen smart calibration, particularly in the Rs 40–80 lakh range. But ballooning input costs could still nudge developers into higher segments.
Chennai, with 29,100 unsold units and a 20-month overhang, reflects a mixed picture. Kolkata, despite the lowest inventory among metros at 28,050 units, has shown the most extreme segmentation mismatch. Luxury inventory jumped 96%, while affordable stock dipped by 24–25%.
Across cities, the segmental data tells a grim tale: the developers are prioritising luxury where returns are higher, not where need is pressing. But the buyers for these luxury flats aren’t lining up, and the result is dead capital, delayed projects, and a distorted market. On the other hand, shrinking disposable incomes have pushed many end-users to rent, not buy.