Housing Market Show Resilience: JLL Consultancy

Mumbai, December 23: The annual sales have exceeded launches for the first time since 2016, indicating further stability in the residential market notes JLL Consultancy in its report ‘India Market Update 2019.’ The year saw a substantial decrease from 159,452 units launched in 2018 to 136,998 units, thereby witnessing a degrowth of 14 per cent in unit launches. However, when it comes to the sales front, the year witnessed an increase of 6 per cent with 143,923 units sold in 2019 versus 136,273 units in 2018.  The last quarter which witnessed new launches of 26,405 units, declined by 31 per cent as compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, contributed majorly for the drop in new launches. 

Commenting on the development Ramesh Nair, CEO and Country Head – India, JLL, said, “The residential market has seen a gradual shift in consumer behaviour. Homebuyers are now looking at mostly ready-to-move-in apartments or under-construction properties by developers who have good track records pertaining to completion of projects. Recent reforms and developers’ focus on the delivery of projects will lead to more supply in 2020 and the revival of buyers’ sentiments.

 Amidst these Mumbai remains the only city in the country that saw a hike in launches, whereas rest of the other cities witnessed a decline in the launches in 2019 as compared to 2018. Interestingly, larger markets such as Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR witnessed more launches, when it comes to ticket-sizes as compared to markets like Hyderabad and Kolkata. The affordable and mid-income housing segments (ticket size of up to Rs 1 crore in Mumbai and Rs 0.75 crore across other cities).  “We believe sales will continue to rise in the future and are likely to increase beyond the pre-demonetisation year of 2016. The revival signs of the residential segment will be more visible through affordable housing demand which will drive long term institutional funds to invest in this segment,” added Nair.