The National Capital Region (NCR) sold more than twice the number of homes compared with Mumbai in the first quarter ended June driven by affordable prices, real estate rating and research firm Liases Foras has said.

Availability of apartments below R1 crore has led the northern region to sell 21.33 million square feet of residential area during April-June period, while the financial capital sold 9.79 million square feet, it said in its report.

NCR sold homes worth R8,227 crore in total, against R7,106 crore in Mumbai. The weighted average cost of an apartment in NCR is R59 lakhs while in Mumbai, it stands at R1 crore. Weighted average cost is the price of the total supply in the market.

However, quarter-on-quarter sales in Mumbai have seen slight improvement and have risen by 7% while sales in NCR have plunged 31%, data shows. ?Although the sales in MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) improved in number of units, the business turnover (value of the stock sold) has come down,? said Pankaj Kapoor, founder and MD, Liases Foras. ?This suggests cheaper properties available at extended suburbs were major contributor to this improvement.?

The sales in Mumbai have been sluggish for over a year now. High property prices coupled with delays in government approvals due to changes in development control rules in the city led to consumers shying away from the residential property market. The availability of homes diminished as new supply did not enter the market, which led to further escalation in prices, making homes unaffordable.

But the Mumbai market is still far from revival when compared with 2010, the home sales registration numbers are still 25% lower in the January to June of 2012, according to registrations data sourced from director general of registrations, Mumbai.

The NCR market, on the other hand, is largely an investor driven market where properties are bought mostly to park capital. With uncertainty in the global economic situation and scepticism over India?s future growth, the investors are becoming shy of real estate, but with prices remaining affordable, the city is seeing more sales, said Kapoor.

?With excellent connectivity to Delhi by road and metro rail and the growing price of property in Delhi; NCR has emerged as a sound alternative to home buyers,? said a spokesperson of Omaxe, a real estate company.