Indian real estate sector witnessed nearly 20% decline in sales in seven major cities. However, the prices have been stable as new supply declined by 34% as compared to the same period last year. Real estate developers are cautious about new projects and this has led to lower supply. Report on sales data by ANAROCK Property Consultants follows.

Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants says, “The decline in new supply and housing sales in this quarter was expected as both homebuyers and developers remained cautious and risk-averse. The slew of economy-boosting measures by the government to spur growth across sectors will very likely give the housing sector a leg-up in the festive season and the ensuing quarters.”

“As evidenced by the quick revival of the stock markets, these measures have already bolstered all-round sentiment. Housing is intensely sentiment-driven and we expect the numbers to improve significantly going forward. Most importantly for the sector, we are seeing a gradual revival of investor confidence. The recent corporate tax cut will spur investments from both domestic and foreign investors – the real need of the hour.”

Overall unsold stock as on Q3 2019 is approx. 6.56 lakh units across the top 7 cities, declining by a meagre 1% against the preceding quarter. However, developers were able to shed their overall unsold stock by at least 5% during the year which stood at 6.87 lakh units back in Q3 2018.

Q3 2019 New Launch Overview

The top 7 cities recorded new unit launches of around 45,230 units in Q3 2019 against 69,020 units in Q2 2019 and 52,130 units in Q3 2018.

The key cities contributing to Q3 2019's new unit launches included MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region), Pune, Bengaluru and NCR, which together accounted for 83% of the supply additions.

MMR saw the launch of approx. 14,040 units – a decline of nearly 39% over Q2 2019 and 29% y-o-y. Over 64% new supply was added in the sub INR 80 lakhs budget segment.
Bengaluru added approx. 9,370 units in Q3 2019, a quarterly decrease of 15% but a 31% increase over Q3 2018. Over 83% new supply was added in the sub INR 80 lakh price bracket.
Pune added approx. 8,320 units in Q3 2019 against 10,700 units in Q2 2019 – a quarterly drop of 22%. The city saw new supply increase by 6% annually.
NCR added approx. 5,790 units in Q3 2019 against 13,570 units in Q2 2019 - a massive decrease of 57%. However, NCR saw the maximum supply rise of 38% among the top cities on yearly basis. Approx. 64% of the new supply was in the affordable segment in Q3 2019.
Hyderabad new launches dropped significantly by 51% over the previous quarter with approx. 2,050 units launched in Q3 2019. The y-o-y supply decline was also 51%.
Chennai added approx. 2,530 units in Q3 2019 against 3,890 units in Q2 2019, a quarterly decrease of 35% and y-o-y fall of 48%.
Kolkata added approx. 3,130 units in Q3 2019, an increase of 19% over Q2 2019’s 2,640 units - but a decline of 22% y-o-y. Approx. 54% of the new supply was in the affordable segment.

Q3 2019 Overall Sales Overview

Around 55,080 units were sold in Q3 2019 – a decline of 20% over Q2 2019, and a 18% y-o-y decline. NCR, MMR, Bengaluru and Pune together accounted for 84% of the sales in the quarter.

Hyderabad recorded a significant drop in sales in this quarter when compared to other top cities. City sales decreased by 26% - from 4,430 units in Q2 2019 to 3,280 units in Q3 2019, due to a big drop in new launch supply. Y-o-y, housing sales in city dropped by 32%.
NCR also recorded a notable decrease in sales in Q3 2019. Sales decreased by 22% - from 12,640 units in Q2 2019 to approx. 9,830 units in Q3 2019. The city saw sales of 11,360 units in Q3 2018, amounting to a 13% annual decline.
Both MMR and Bengaluru saw sales decrease by 20% each in Q3 2019 over the previous quarter, at approx. 17,200 units and 10,500 units respectively. Interestingly, on a yearly basis, Bengaluru saw the maximum sales decline of 35%, while MMR saw the least decline at 6%.
Sales in Chennai and Kolkata in Q3 2019 decreased by 12% each over the previous quarter, clocking in at approx. 2,620 units and 3,120 units respectively. On y-o-y basis, Chennai saw sales decline by 11% and Kolkata saw a 27% fall.
In Pune, approx. 8,550 units were sold in Q3 2019- a decline of 18% over Q2 2019 and an 8% decline y-o-y.

Unsold Inventory - Q3 2019

Overall unsold housing inventory decreased by a meagre 1% q-o-q - from 6.66 lakh units in Q2 2019 to 6.56 lakh units by Q3 2019. On a y-o-y basis, the top 7 cities saw unsold stock fall by 5% from 6.87 lakh units in Q3 2018.

Bengaluru witnessed the highest yearly reduction in unsold inventory by 17% - from 76,550 units in Q3 2018 to 63,540 units in Q3 2019.
Hyderabad was second in shedding overall yearly unsold stock by 12% in Q3 2019. It now stands at 23,890 units – the lowest among the top 7 cities.