Mumbai, Pune sells most houses; accounts for 45% of housing sales during Jan-June 2021

With more houses being sold in the first half of this year, Mumbai and Pune accounted for the majority of housing sales. Both markets together accounted for 45 per cent of the overall houses sold during the months January to June 2021. Of 99,416 residential properties purchased, 28,607 houses were sold in Mumbai whereas 17,474 houses were bought by people in Pune in the last six months, data by Knight Frank India Research showed. According to the report, the residential market witnessed a surge in sales on the back of the Maharashtra government’s decision to lower the stamp duty for a limited period.

Last year in August, the state government of Maharashtra had cut the stamp duty by 2-3 per cent. Till December 31, 2020, people in the state were expected to pay stamp duty of 2 per cent, a reduction from earlier 5 per cent. Further during January- March this year, the stamp duty stood at 3 per cent. However, post that, the reduced rates of stamp duty expired.

Rohit Poddar, Managing Director, Poddar Housing and Development said, “From a real estate standpoint, the reduction in repo rate, stamp duty, ready reckoner rate has been crucial in driving the sales momentum in H2 2020 and Q2 2021. Moreover, post the stamp duty revision, lucrative offers from developers have managed to sustain the momentum.”

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Apart from Mumbai and Pune, six other cities in India witnessed sales growth in the first half of this year. This includes Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kolkata. According to Poddar, the overall buyer demand has been better than before which led to increase in sales as well as partial recovery in the residential sector. “H1 2021 saw a rise of 67 per cent YoY in sales volume with the first half of this period recording the larger part of the total volumes,” read the Knight Frank report.

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Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India highlighted that the limited period stamp duty cut which led to spike in housing sales in Mumbai and Pune adequately demonstrates the need for policy level intervention to revive the residential market. “Going by the tremendous success of the stamp duty cut in Maharashtra, other states may also consider similar demand stimuli at appropriate times that will not only help sales velocity but also propel economic activity,” said Baijal.