The pandemic has hit the real estate sector hard, the Island city, which comprises of South Mumbai and Central Mumbai, saw the least number of sales in the first quarter of 2020-21.
According to a report by squarefeatindia.com, Island city saw a sale of only 204 units in the first quarter of 2020-21. While the MMR saw a total of 6,396 units being sold in Q1 of 2020-21. Liases Foras, a real estate research firm, in its study report, said that Island City in Q1 of 2019-20 sold 563 units. This figure went up in Q4 of 2019-20 to 642 units.
But, in Q1 of 2020-21 the Island city saw a sale of only 204 units a drastic fall of 68% compared to the previous quarter. As per the report, Western Suburb saw a sale of 869 units in Q1 of 2020-21. While, Central Suburb sold only 538 units in the Q1 of 2020-21.
Meanwhile, a quarterly analysis by real estate brokerage firm PropTiger.com shows that India's economy taking a beating on account of coronavirus-induced health and financial crisis, new launches, and housing sales declined significantly in the country's eight prime residential markets during the April to June period.
According to the report titled 'Real Insight: Q2 2020,' housing sales in the three months dipped 79 percent over the same period last year. As against 92,764 units in Q2 2019, only 19,038 units were sold from April to June this year. Affordable housing (units priced up to Rs 45 lakh) continued to dominate the real-estate sector accounting for a 44 percent share of all sales, said the report.
The cities surveyed are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Delhi-NCR, including Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Faridabad and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane.
The report, however, indicates that the pandemic has spurred a big change as far as the closing of real estate transactions is concerned. More and more buyers switched to digital channels for their future purchases due to the lockdown amid real estate gaining prominence as a preferred asset class as huge volatility in other investment options in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
