Housing sales dip 20 per cent in Sept quarter over June

Chennai: Homebuyers continued to be cautious in September quarter. Housing sales in the top seven cities declined 18 per cent against the same quarter last year. Even sequentially, September quarter sales were down 20 per cent compared to June quarter.

Around 55,080 units were sold in Q3 2019 against 68,600 units in Q2 2019 and 67,140 units in Q3 2018. Hyderabad saw a significant decline in sales 26 per cent sequentially and 32 per cent yearly. NCR sales too dropped 22 per cent from Q2 and 13 per cent from Q3 2018. Bangalore witnessed a drop of 35 per cent from same quarter last year and 20 per cent from Q2. Sales in Chennai and Kolkata decreased by 12 per cent each over the previous quarter and on a Y-o-Y basis, Chennai saw sales decline by 11 per cent and Kolkata saw a 27 per cent fall, according to the data from Anarock Property.

“The ongoing ‘shraadh’ period — seen as inauspicious in many parts of the country — coupled with the ban on the subvention schemes compounded the quarterly dip. Above normal and heavy rainfall impacted the number of site visits resulting in longer decision-making cycle,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants.

According to Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India, the homebuyer has shunned the market due to the industry’s endemic credibility issues and a slowdown in general consumption demand that has affected all industries. “This slowdown in consumption is reflected in the fall in Private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) from 66.2 per cent of the GDP during FY12-FY14 to 57.5 per cent in FY15-FY19,” said.

New launches too declined – at 45,230 units launches fell 34 per cent from 69,020 units in Q2 2019 and 13 per cent from 52,130 units in Q3 2018. In Hyderabad new launches dropped significantly by 51 per cent over the previous quarter and y-o-y supply too declined by 51 per cent. Chennai saw quarterly decrease of 35 per cent and y-o-y fall of 48 per cent.

Overall unsold housing inventory decreased only by a meagre one per cent q-o-q from 6.66 lakh units in Q2 2019 to 6.56 lakh units by Q3 2019. On a y-o-y basis, the top seven cities saw unsold stock fall by 5 per cent from 6.87 lakh units in Q3 2018.