Nearly 402,000 houses were completed in 2022 in top seven cities in India, which is 44% higher than 279,000 houses in 2021. The number of unit completions have been the highest between the years 2017 and 2022.

Of the total, the highest completion was in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) at about 126,720 units, which is nearly 80% more than 70,500 units in the metropolis in 2021, according to latest date from Anarock Research. At 86,300 units, the number of units completed in NCR have remained almost flat against 86,590 units in 2021.

Pune witnessed completions of close to 84,200 units in 2022, which was about double of 46,080 in 2021.

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Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai collectively saw nearly 81,580 units completed in 2022, against 63,870 units in 2021. Kolkata also doubled its units completion count with 23,190 units in 2022, against 11,620 units in 2021.

“In response to the high demand seen in 2022, developers remained focused on completing their previously launched projects,” said Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock Group.

He said that about 544,000 residential units are scheduled to be completed across top seven cities in 2023. “Construction activity was, and will hopefully remain, least impacted even if the pandemic resurfaces, so most completions may be as per schedule. Certainly, developers are committed to completing previously launched projects before launching new ones,” he said.

Delhi-NCR is slated for maximum completions in 2023, followed by MMR and Pune. In Bengaluru, nearly 73,470 units are expected to see completion. Hyderabad is expected to see completions of about 25,120 units completion in 2023, Kolkata of 33,040 units, while Chennai will have the lowest stock with about 18,550 units scheduled to be completed in 2023.

However, the prices of residential property will continue to go up in 2023 as well, according to a joint report by Colliers-CREDAI and Liases Foras basis a developers’ sentiment survey.

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The rise in prices is likely to be led by a robust demand for houses in the Indian market and at the same time, volatile key input costs. Raw material costs have surged significantly in the last two years due to global supply chain disruption, which has led to inflationary pressures. About 43% of the developers saw a 10-20% rise in project costs in 2022 compared to 2021 amidst rising input costs. This is in line with Colliers’ construction cost update, November 2022, which states that the cost of key construction materials has jumped about 32% in a span of three years. This has led to increased costs of construction for the developers.

According to JLL India, the affordability synergy that was prevailing six months back has been facing some challenges. There has been a rise in residential prices across the top seven cities of India in the range of 4-11% year-on-year along with home loan interest rate that has moved up by around 200 basis points in the last seven to eight months.

“More than 70% of developers believe the demand for home ownership will either increase by 25% or remain stable in 2023. With such sentiment, 87% of the developers in the community are looking to expand their offerings and the year is likely to see a surge in new launches equal to the current supply under construction,” said Harsh Vardhan Patodia, president, Credai National.

Ramesh Nair, CEO (India) and MD (market development Asia), Colliers, said that homebuyers remain enthused about purchasing homes, despite rising interest rates. “Developers too are focusing on launching projects that are aligned as per the needs of the homebuyers and are also formulating strategies to complete their pending projects and bring in demand-led supply,” he said. “We have also seen a marginal increase in property prices. The market is likely to maintain the momentum that the sentiment survey re-affirms”, said Pankaj Kapoor, managing director, Liases Foras.