NCR flat sales fell 68% in 5 years: Study

NOIDA/GURUGRAM: The National Capital Region (NCR) has witnessed a 68% fall in real estate sales between 2013 and 2017, research group Anarock has said in a report.
The report says the total number of housing sales across NCR stood at 37,600 in 2017 compared to 1,18,000 in 2013. Changes in real estate policy brought by the introduction of RERA and the implementation of the GST have been cited as the main reasons for the slum in sales.
Officials said the real estate market had already started shrinking by 2013-14 and witnessed the sharpest dip in sales by the end of 2016 and the middle of 2017, when the RERA and GST were implemented.
The two factors had not only affected real estate in NCR, but the entire country. In 2017, only 2 lakh houses were sold nationally.
The study by Anarock was not limited to NCR but was based on absolute sales figures from six other top real estate markets of India —Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.
“The findings of the report reveal that larger areas such as NCR and MMR, which were heavily driven by investors, recorded a massive drop of 68% and 27%, respectively, in average sales from 2013-14 to 2016-17. Bangalore and Chennai, also on investors’ radar, saw average sales decline by 17% and 45%, respectively,” the report stated.
“Pune, which is an NRI-driven market, also witnessed a decline of 29% in average sales. In Kolkata, sales in 2017 saw smallest decline of 12% as compared to average sales of 2013-14.”
Hyderabad was the only city that saw a 32% growth during the period.
Anarock CEO Anuj Puri said the delay in handing over projects in NCR and the controversies surrounding them must have played on the minds of people while taking decisions on buying a house. “It has been a bad time, especially as speculation has played havoc with the Indian real estate market. Reduced buyer confidence because of irrational project delays and diversion of capital also contributed significantly to the decline,” he said.
Asked about the dip in the sales, Amit Modi, Credai vice-president in western UP, said: “Sales in NCR have suffered specifically because of NGT orders stalling construction. Farmers’ protests and compensation issues are also to blame. These factors shook the investor sentiment.”