News: Despite Covid-19, over 55,000 residential units sold in Jan-June: Anarock-30-06-2020
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/real-estate/despite-covid-19-over-55000-residential-units-sold-in-jan-june-anarock/article31950701.ece
Despite the prevailing crisis created by the pandemic, 57,940 residential units were sold, and sales continued to exceed launches in the first half (H1) of calendar year 2020, said real estate consultancy firm Anarock.
In its H1 2020 pan-India residential real estate round-up, Anarock said sales decreased by 49 per cent in H1 2020 compared to H2 2019 as every city underwent contraction. The contraction was in the range of 46 to 51 per cent across the top seven cities of India.
Sales in Q2 accounted only for 22 per cent of H1, which primarily led to an overall decline in half-yearly sales. Q2 2020 units sales were 72 per cent lower than the previous quarter and nearly 81 per cent down from Q2 2019.
Three was a marginal 2 per cent decline in unsold inventory in H1 2020 compared to H2 2019. Sales continued to exceed new launches, resulting in unsold inventory reduction.
In H1 2020, new launch supply declined by 56 per cent compared to H2 2019. The nationwide lockdown imposed from the last week of March severely impacted the real estate sector, resulting in muted launches.
Q2 2020 was the most impacted quarter with launches being the lowest since 2013. During this quarter, new launch supply declined by 97 per cent over Q1 2020 and 98 per cent year-on-year.
The share of affordable housing in H1 2020 new launches was around 36 per cent, against 41 per cent in H2 2019. In absolute terms, the half-yearly decline in this segment was around 61 per cent. No new supply was added in the affordable segment in Q2 2020.
Anarock said: “While the impact on the residential segment has been high, we believe that the demand is likely to resurface during the second half of the year. The festive season falling in the last quarter of the calendar year is likely to kick off the revival cycle. It is anticipated that the vaccine against Covid-19 will be available by then or the masses will have developed immunity to combat the threat posed to their health and so the situation may start to improve.”
