Fears that costlier homes would keep buyers away are proving unfounded. Despite the anxieties triggered by the hostilities in West Asia, property sales have stayed brisk as more consumers aspire to a place of their own.
The action, though, is largely at the top of the market. Sales of residential units priced between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 3 crore shot up 58% year-on-year in H1 2026 to 51,231 units, according to JLL data — despite prices having risen in double digits over the past two years: 7-10% in Mumbai, 10-12% in Hyderabad and as much as 15-17% in Gurugram. The jump, moreover, comes on the back of a strong run over the past three years; in 2025, sales in this bucket rose 20%.
Affordable housing loses ground
High net worth individuals and those with relatively high, stable incomes are driving these purchases, experts say, with affordable credit making it easier to buy in a city of one’s choice.
The story is quite different below Rs 1 crore. The share of such homes in overall sales has dwindled to a little over a fourth in H1 2026, from 39% a year earlier. Demand in the affordable segment has softened on elevated property prices, as rising costs of steel, cement, tiles and fittings forced developers to pass on the burden to consumers.
At the higher end, however, the wealth effect is in full play. Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director, Hiranandani Group, attributes the momentum to increasing affluence in a growing economy. “GDP is growing, income levels are growing and so home sales are also good,” he told FE.
The numbers bear him out. Despite several headwinds, the economy has grown at more than 7% in each of the years from FY24 to FY26. Private final consumption expenditure grew a strong 7.7% last fiscal, helped, experts reckon, by the GST rate cuts of last September. Salaries may not be rising uniformly across sectors, but those in IT, BFSI, GCCs and multinational corporations are earning well.
Cheap money is doing its bit too. With the repo rate down 100 basis points, home loans are affordable — which explains why three-fourths of homes today are bought on credit. Bank mortgage lending has grown 11% year-on-year every month since December 2025.
With price increases likely to be measured from here on, after the double-digit hikes of recent years, the buying momentum should continue. Viswa Prathap Desu, COO-Residential, Brigade Group, says demand remains resilient, particularly in the premium and luxury segments, where buyers are confident about long-term value creation. “We expect the strong sales trend to sustain, though with some moderation in select micro-markets,” he said.
Demand outlook stays firm
That sounds plausible in a city like Bengaluru, with its large cohort of high net worth individuals and well-paying IT and start-up jobs. In Kolkata, by contrast, demand has largely stagnated in the absence of growth momentum. Sushil Mohta, chairman, Merlin Group, and president, CREDAI West Bengal, believes that until the local economy picks up, sales in Kolkata may continue to hover around 15,000 units a year, with a third in the above-Rs 1 crore category.
Management commentary from listed developers suggests the buoyancy should sustain. Akash Gupta, analyst at Nomura, observed that after the Q1 results, none of the players changed their pre-sales growth guidance for the year, indicating demand remains on solid ground. “Nevertheless, the negative impact on demand due to the conflict in the Middle East getting stretched remains a key monitorable,” he noted.
Launches, meanwhile, could stay skewed towards premium homes, which are economically more viable for developers. CareEdge data shows the share of sales in the Rs 1.5-4 crore segment has swelled from 14% in Q1 2022 to 44% in Q1 2026. If affordable housing is to revive, says Hiranandani, stamp duties and other charges need to come down.