Enquiries on residential housing that had sagged during the early period of the lockdown have now improved and reached 50 per cent of the pre Covid-19 levels.

According to a report from Anarock Consultants, the recovery has been the fastest in Bangalore, where current enquiries have reached 70 per cent of the January-February period, followed by Gurgaon at nearly 65 per cent.

Employees from IT/ITeS, pharma, manufacturing industries and the government sector are driving the demand.

The real estate consultancy firm said that in terms of the preferred budget range, homes priced between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 1.25 crore are attracting a major chunk of the enquiries. Bangalore, Chennai, Ghaziabad and Noida are seeing maximum demand for homes below Rs 1 crore.

Anarock said buyers in Calcutta, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Noida are more inclined towards 3BHKs and upwards, while the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has seen a higher preference for 2BHKs over the previous 1BHK.

“Though site visits are far from the previous levels, the site-visit-to-closure conversion rate has increased considerably as only serious buyers are venturing out, with casual window shoppers fairly dormant currently,” Prashant Thakur, director & head-research, Anarock Property Consultants said.

Hyderabad is seeing an average of 15 per cent site visits converting to sales against 8 per cent in the pre-Covid period. Gurgaon, with just 4-5 per cent conversions earlier, is clocking 8-10 per cent. Other cities report similar trends, Anarock said.

MMR is witnessing enquiries for homes priced within Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore, for property sizes between 400 square feet and 800 square feet carpet area.

Addressing shareholders recently at its annual general meeting, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh had disclosed unsold housing units were already higher prior to the lockdown in the major cities. He said despite the adverse impact of the pandemic, the inherent demand for home loans continues to remain strong.