The Mumbai BMC region (Churchgate to Dahisar and Colaba to Mulund) recorded property registrations of 6,784 units in August, registering a growth of 157 per cent compared to the same month of last year, according to Knight Frank India.
The registrations were also 16 per cent higher compared pre-pandemic period of August 2019. Overwhelmingly, 92 per cent of registered homes were fresh sales amounting to 6,241 units that were sold last month.
New home sales grown from 53 per cent in July, 42 per cent in June while in April was as low as 7 per cent. The percentage contribution of women buyers to the total registrations remained steady at four per cent totalling to 271 registrations.
Knight Frank India said the headline registration numbers for April to July period are elevated as homebuyers who brought their apartments this year during the lower stamp duty window had a leeway of four months until July 31 to register their property.
The real estate consultancy said concessions offered to women homebuyers must be enhanced further. The state government can experiment with a further 100 basis points reduction in stamp duty rates for women homebuyers and see if the registrations pick up.
The savings of 200 bps stamp duty savings during the window of January to March had witnessed strong sales. This will not just help the cause of increasing home ownership among women but also aid the sector.
Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director of Knight Frank India, said real estate sales in Mumbai have bounced back strongly after the pandemic. "Going by the rise in fresh sales during the month which has consistently grown since April along with the significant rise of sales of homes priced upto Rs one crore, we can safely say that the real demand has put the woes of the second wave behind."
With the upcoming festive season and expected economic revival along with improved vaccinations, Baijal expects this sales momentum to grow stronger. "We believe that the time is ripe for the state government to offer further concessions to improve home ownership, especially among women to provide fillip to this category of homebuyers," he said.
