The housing market has been flattened by the coronavirus: firstly, by the sinking sentiment among home buyers and second, the curbs on construction induced by the country-wide lockdown.
Housing sales fell 42 per cent during the January-March period at 45,200 units across seven major cities in the country on poor demand amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus infections, according to housing brokerage firm Anarock.
Sales stood at 78,510 units in the year-ago period across seven cities — Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune— according to sales data till March 25.
Sales declined 24 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
Anarock said there would be negligible sales till this month end because of the nationwide lockdown.
“Given the ongoing global healthcare calamity, it’s no surprise that housing sales and new project launches across India’s top seven cities decreased both on a yearly and quarterly basis,” Anarock chairman Anuj Puri said.
He said March — the month when most advisories and lockdown were imposed — saw a steep decline in both launches and housing sales against the preceding two months.
According to the data, Calcutta saw a 39 per cent decline in sales to 2,440 units in January-March 2020 from 4,020 units a year ago.
Housing sales in Delhi-NCR dropped 41 per cent at 8,150 units during January-March 2020 from 13,740 units in the same period last year.
In MMR, sales were down 42 per cent to 13,910 units from 24,000 units in the year-ago period, while Bangalore saw a 45 per cent dip at 8,630 units from 15,580 units in January-March 2019.
“The government has taken an inarguably necessary hard-line stance to curtail the spread of the virus. The lockdowns have stalled construction activity and will lead to project delays in the future, but this is a reality the sector must accept and live with,” Puri said.
Launches fall
Launches, too, fell 42 per cent annually — from 70,480 units in the first quarter of 2019 to 41,200 in January-March 2020, the report said.