The sporadic layoffs in information technology (IT) firms seemingly have dampened the residential real estate sentiments in key IT hubs such as Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, pushing unsold inventory up and sales downwards in these cities.
Among others, US-based IT company Oracle recently laid off 12,000 staff in the country and more cuts likely to happen, reports said. The country’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reduced its staff strength by 23,460 in FY26.
Unsold inventory of housing units in Bengaluru has gone up 23% in the first quarter of 2026 to 71,611 units, followed by a 12% rise in Pune to 54,439 units and a 3% rise in Hyderabad. The increase in unsold units in these cities is the highest among the top cities in the country, according to Knight Frank India.
Inventory Surge
Though residential sales across top cities of the country are on a decline after three years of boom and sharp rise in prices, the home sales in IT hubs are clearly seeing the impact of layoffs, experts said.
Housing sales in Pune in the first quarter of 2026 saw a 3% decline, while Hyderabad saw 4% growth and Bengaluru saw no growth at all, Knight Frank said. Sequentially, Bengaluru saw a 5% decline in Q1 home sales, while Pune saw a 10% decline and Hyderabad saw no growth, according to Anarock Property Consultants.
“The layoffs are definitely playing on homebuyer sentiment in these cities, and end-user demand could have been better in all these IT-dominated markets had this not been the case,” said Vivek Rathi, national director, research, Knight Frank India.
The southern markets of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai have been more resilient to this phenomenon till now, Rathi said.
He said sentiment should continue to be subdued among homebuyers from the IT sector. “However, the AI story is still evolving and must be monitored closely in subsequent quarters,” he said.
Prashant Thakur, executive director and head of research and advisory, Anarock Property Consultants, said, “Buyers in these cities are in a ‘wait and watch’ mode and in no hurry to buy as they expect prices to correct,” he said. IT layoffs, along with summer vacation and intense heat in many cities, have led to a slowdown in residential sales in recent weeks, Thakur added.
“April-June quarter will clearly see the impact of these factors. Cancellation of bookings could also happen,” he said.
He expects the unsold stock in the IT hubs to rise 3 to 4% in this year. Thakur said developers are also facing challenges in terms of not being able to announce big launches and increase prices despite the rise in cost, due to the weak demand.
Amit Bagri, managing director and CEO at Kotak Mahindra Investments, said everyone in the industry is worried that if more news of IT layoffs comes, it would have a major impact on sales.
GCCs vs. AI
However, Bagri said the leasing by global capacity centres (GCCs) is working as a countervailing force to offset the disruption caused by artificial intelligence (AI) in IT and ITES segments.
“We saw a record leasing last year, which was significantly contributed to by GCCs. As far as AI goes, no Indian company has implemented it actively now,” he said.