Covid second wave slashes housing sales by 58% in Q2 2021: PropEquity Study

New Delhi: In a report released by PropEquity, India’s leading real estate data, research and analytics firm, sales or absorption fell by a massive 58%as India witnessed the major brunt of the COVID second wave in April and May.

Stringent lockdown across major cities in India impacted housing sales as home registrations were also suspended including slow pace of home loan disbursals. Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, MMR, NCR & Pune are the cities where home sales witnessed a fall in Q2 2021 versus Q1 2021 at 55%, 59%, 49%, 57%, 63%, 43%&62% respectively.

Also, the new supply or new launches of housing units decreased by 54% in the same period to 34,053 units from Q1 2021 at 74,196 units. Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, MMR, NCR & Pune are the cities where 65%, 66%, 65%, 30%, 52%, 55%&38%respectively.

However, sales or absorption of housing units were up by 51% across top 7 cities in India in the second quarter of 2021 to 45,208 units versus 29,942 units in Q2 2020. Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, MMR, NCR & Pune are the cities where home sales witnessed a jump by 33%, 65%, 138%, 14%, 38%, 98%&39%.

“These are unprecedented times for the world economy and India is one of the hardest hit countries due to COVID-19 epidemic. The real estate sector which was slowly recovering by March was hit with the second wave. Going ahead, we may witness resizing of units, marketing-led discounts, amenities and special payment schemes to be offered by developers to boost demand, especially during the beginning of the festive season,” Samir Jasuja, founder and managing director at PropEquity said.