Indian real estate biz is growing brick by brick

If home buying is of any indication, then Indian economy certainly has more reasons than one to cheer about. As many as 1,73,155 homes were sold across the top-7 cities in the first two quarters of FY23, against 87,375 in the corresponding period of FY22.

This means that the number has doubled during this period. In value terms, the total estimated value of homes sold in H1, FY22 stood at Rs71,295 crore. And this year, that is in H1 FY 23, in MMR alone, overall sales value has gone up to Rs74,835 crore, followed by NCR at Rs24,374 crore and Bangalore at Rs17,651 crore. All these were revealed by the latest study by Anarock Properties group. If these figures are to be believed, MMR saw a yearly gain of 110 per cent in overall housing sales value (it was Rs35,610 crore in H1 FY22), NCR, on its parts, saw a whopping 174 per cent jump.

Other cities are not lagging far behind either. In Bangalore, homes cumulatively worth Rs17,651 crore were sold in H1 FY23, against Rs8,218 crore in the two quarters of FY22 - an annual increase of 115 per cent. Pune sold nearly 26,580 homes worth Rs13,532 crore in H1 FY23. Kolkata and Chennai, on their parts, saw homes worth Rs4,774 crore and Rs4,709 crore sold respectively in first two quarters of the ongoing fiscal, rising by 115 per cent and 57 per cent annually. Down South in Hyderabad, housing sales value rose by 130 per cent - from Rs6,926 crore in H1 FY22 to Rs15,958 crore in H1 FY23.

Going by these facts and figures, there is no doubt whatsoever that the numbers vouchsafe that the first half of FY23 was a highly upbeat period for the residential market in the top-7 cities, allying fears that housing sales could be impacted by rising property prices and interest rates. The developers and other stakeholders in the country's realty sector have reasons to believe that Diwali came early for them, with homes worth Rs1.56 lakh crore sold across the top 7 cities in H1 FY23.

A separate study by the real estate consultancy firm PropEquity also shows that despite biting inflation and higher interest rates, the real estate market has shown a gradual recovery this year from Covid-19 lockdowns.

In fact, sales of residential properties in India's top cities jumped 24 per cent in the July-September quarter of this year compared to last year. According to the report, total sales stood at 1,08,817 units in the third quarter of 2022 as against 87,747 units in the same quarter of 2021.

Talking about the Hyderabad market, another separate study by Knight Frank says that the weighted average prices of transacted residential properties as per the registration data has grown by 12 per cent YoY in October 2022. Sangareddy district saw the steepest rise of 37 per cent YoY in October 2022 indicating more higher value homes were sold in this location during this period. Price growth in the Hyderabad market has been strong in recent times. With higher value property being sold in October 2022; the weighted average price has shown an uptrend in all micro-markets of Hyderabad. So, while numbers may vary, all such studies amply drive home the point that things are looking up, when it comes to purchasing of new homes.