Top Indian cities were found to be some of the worst performers in terms of house price appreciation across the globe during the fourth quarter of 2020.
A Knight Frank report that charted 150 cities across Asia, Europe, America and Africa showed only Hyderabad to record a modest price increase in October-December. Calcutta ranked 147th with a 4.3 per cent decline in the average price during the period.
The Global Residential Cities Index, Q4, 2020, said prices across 150 cities worldwide increased 5.6 per cent on an average in 2020, up from 3.2 per cent in 2019.
The report highlighted that 81 per cent of the cities saw prices rise year-on-year in Q4 of 2020. The index’s annual rate of growth increased for the sixth consecutive quarter in Q4 of 2020. Twenty per cent of the cities registered double-digit price growth in the year to Q4, 2020.
Three cities in Turkey — Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul — topped the chart with around 30 per cent rise, but they were linked to high inflation and the lira’s trajectory, the report noted. Chennai was the worst performer with a 9 per cent drop.
Real estate insiders said developers offered many discounts and freebies during the festive months to increase sales as unsold inventory continued to remain high.
Soft prices along with the lowest mortgage rates had the desired impact in the market. Moreover, Maharashtra, which accounts for two of the top 7 realty markets in the country — Mumbai and Pune — benefited from the limited period stamp duty cut offered by the local state government. The sop ended on March 31.
“The Indian residential market has strongly rebounded over the last three quarters with the stress on owning houses, lower prices and multi-decade low home loan interest rate. The government interventions on stamp duty cut in key markets also helped the sector gain momentum back to pre-Covid levels,” Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director of Knight Frank India, said.
Two reports published by competing consultancies JLL and Anarock noted that sales have nearly reached pre-Covid levels in Q1 of 2021 or crossed in some places, such as Calcutta, signalling revival.
