Over 4 Lakh Affordable Housing Units Unsold in Nine Cities: PropTiger Data

Even as millions of Indians struggle to find a roof over their heads, the country’s cash-starved developers are sitting on an inventory consisting of four lakh affordable housing units. Data available with PropTiger.com show, there were a total of 4, 71,372 unsold units till the end of June this year, in India’s nine key property markets. These numbers account for half the overall inventory stock in these cities.

This is ironic since the government has been launching several measures to push affordable housing in order to achieve its ’Housing-For-All-By-2022’ target. In the recently announced budget, the government has increased the tax deduction limit to Rs 3.5 lakhs annually on the interest paid towards home loan for units priced up to Rs 45 lakhs.

Inventory declines by 12%

However, the inventory stock in the affordable category declined by 12 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) during the April-June quarter, this year. At over 1.39 lakh, Mumbai contributes highest to the unsold inventory in this segment, despite a 15 per cent decline in the past one year. After a 39 per cent decline, Hyderabad now has the lowest inventory stock in the affordable category. During the quarter ending June this year, Chennai was the only city where inventory stock saw an increase, at 20 per cent. The increase notwithstanding, Chennai still has the lowest inventory stock after Hyderabad during this quarter.

Sales fall by 7%

When compared to the same quarter the previous year, home sales in the affordable housing segment plunged seven per cent. As against 42,828 units in Q1FY19, only 39,824 units were sold in the same quarter this year. The sharpest decline in sales was registered in Noida (55%) and Hyderabad (42%) during Q1FY20. While the most impressive pick-up was registered in Gurugram, sales also increased in Kolkata, Chennai and Pune.

Launches decrease by 56%

Prevailing market conditions and monetary constraints continued to have an impact on new launches in the affordable housing segment also, with numbers falling 56 per cent y-o-y. As against 41,354 units launched in June quarter last year, only 18,042 units were launched in the same quarter this year.

Barring Gurugram, where launches tripled, they declined in all other cities during the quarter ending June 2019. In terms of numbers, the highest number of new units during the quarter was launched in Pune (4,069) despite an annual depreciation of 59 per cent. The sharpest fall in launches was seen in Ahmedabad, where only 259 units were launched during the quarter ending June, as against 5,403 units in Q1FY19.

PropTiger Q2 Report FY'16: 10 Facts To Know

Srinibas Rout

November 10, 2015: The PropTiger Data Labs has come up with its quarterly report on the real estate space in India for the quarter ending September (Q2'FY16). The report, Realty Decoded-Q2'FY16, covers and analyses various aspects of the residential real estate space including launches, absorption, inventory, and prices across key real estate markets in India. Although the sector as a whole remained cold in Q2, there were some positives too.

PropGuide lists 10 emerging trends from the report:

• No city other than Hyderabad saw a rise in number of new launches when compared to the second quarter of financial year 2015. Provident Housing launched over 2,000 units in the city during the quarter. A total of 2,998 units were launched in Q2'FY16 as against the 2,440 units in Q2'FY15 in joint capital city of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

• Both the number of units launched and units sold continued to slide. When compared to the first quarter of financial year of 2016, number of units launched dropped to 37,000 in Q2 as against 51,000, whereas number of units sold went down by 14 per cent to 49,000 from 57,000.

• Sales in Q2 outnumbered launches making the total outstanding inventory to reduce quarter-by-quarter. However, the reduction was between 5,000 and 12,000 a quarter.

• Apart from Gurgaon, all other cities saw a drop in sales. However, Gurgaon's numbers were just one per cent more than the previous quarter.

• In terms of investor, demand for homes in Bhiwadi and Sohna stood at 36 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively.

• With close to 60 per cent share, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Noida have the largest share of unsold inventory. Of the three, Noida has the highest unsold inventory in affordable segment. Gurgaon and Mumbai have a majority of unsold inventory in the luxury segment. The report says that only four to seven per cent of the total inventory is ready-to-move-in. Therefore, majority of the inventory overhang is in various stages of construction.

• With 57 per cent of the total number of units launched, the affordable segment (property priced below Rs 50 lakh) to continues stay ahead. The segment took a majority of share in the number of units sold as well. Nearly 52 per cent of total units sold were in the affordable segment.

• Ahmedabad took the pole position with the highest level of unsold inventory in ready-to-move-in segment. The city has also seen launches at higher price points compared to the last quarter.

• Down South, the garden city Bengaluru saw the highest price appreciation among cities in last ten quarters.