Housing sales from top-grade developers in Calcutta were reported to be down 10 per cent in 2022 over the previous year by a Knight Frank study, even as citybased developers described the last calendar as a ‘bumper’ year for the residential real estate industry.

The consultancy pegged sales at 12,909 units in 2022 compared with 14,405 units recorded in 2021 — a year that marked a breakout from the lockdown-induced slowdown of 2020.

Knight Frank said the volume normalised in 2022 in the face of rising home loan rates even as all other metro markets of India recorded a positive growth, unlike Calcutta. Sales were down 37 per cent if the second half of 2022 is considered.

Only 5,819 units were sold compared with 9,290 in the same period of 2021. In the first half of 2022, the consultancy’s study recorded 7,090 unit sales.

“I would describe the downtrend to be a one-off. It does not reflect on the health of the market,” Abhijit Das, senior director (east) of Knight Frank India, said.

Launches, however, were recorded to be up by 64 per cent in 2022 compared with the previous year. Developers brought 12,330 fresh units to the market compared with only 7,510 in 2021.

On a half-yearly basis, launches were up 6 per cent to 5,644 units in July-December 2022, even as it was down from the first half of 2022 when 6,686 units were launched. City-based developers, however, said the Knight Frank numbers are not in consonance with what has been witnessed by the industry.

“We have had the best year in 7-8 years. It was an all round growth. Every segment of the real estate industry did well. I would say 2022 was a bumper year,” Sidharth Pansari, president of Credai (Bengal) and director of Primarc.

Sushil Mohta, president of Credai (West Bengal) chapter, also described 2022 as a year of resurgence for Calcutta and hoped that demand for quality homes would continue despite rise in home loan rates.

Knight Frank’s report also noted that office market absorption stood at 1.1 million square feet, up 42 per cent y-o-y. However, completion of office space was down 70 per cent in 2022 over 2021.