The Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown have impacted the real estate sector hard with apartment sales hitting a new low during the April-June quarter. According to Anarock, housing sales fell 81% y-o-y to around 12,740 units in Q2 2020 against 68,600 units in Q2 2019. On a sequential basis, sales dropped 72% from 45,200 units in Q1 2020.
New launches, too, plunged to a new low across India’s top seven cities in Q2 2020. Anarock said new launches fell 98% y-o-y with merely 1,390 units getting launched in the quarter. New launches accounted for just four projects — two in Bengaluru and one each in Pune and Kolkata. There were no new launches in MMR, NCR, Hyderabad and Chennai.
A massive drop in both new launches and housing sales were, of course, expected on back of a complete lockdown for most of this quarter,” Anarock Property Consultants chairman Anuj Puri told FE.
Interestingly, the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR), which is one of the most Covid-19 affected cities, witnessed maximum housing sales of nearly 3,620 units among all cities. It was followed by Bengaluru with around 2,990 units. Technology adoption has played a big role in housing sales of late, with many developers now strengthening their digital sales capabilities, he added.
Interestingly, limited new launches helped unsold inventory in the top 6 cities to shrink 5% on a y-o-y basis — from more than 6.34 lakh units in Q2 2019, it dropped to just over 6 lakh units in Q2 2020.
MMR witnessed significantly lower sales compared to previous year and the preceding quarter. Sales in NCR and MMR decreased 83% y-o-y each in Q2 2020 and 74% each sequentially. Current quarter sales were recorded at around 2,100 and 3,620 units, respectively.