After getting battered badly during the Covid-19 lockdown between April and June, the real estate sector is slowly picking up as the number of new launches and sales have increased in the last three months in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) says a report by Knight Frank India, a real estate consultancy firm.
In the MMR, 7,635 housing units were sold in July to September period compared to 2,687 units sold during April to June quarter. In the pre-Covid-19 quarter (January to March), the number of housing units sold were 15,959.
The MMR includes Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane as well as parts of Palghar and Raigad districts.
Rajani Sinha, chief economist and national director (research), Knight Frank India, described it as an encouraging trend. “The recent cut of stamp duty by 3 percent has been a big motivation for many of the buyers. In addition, the low interest rates on home loans plus the freebies and discounts offered by the builders have all resulted in increase in sales,” said Sinha.
She said, looking at the current trend, the sales may further be boosted during the forthcoming festival season of Diwali.
The Maharashtra government on August 26 decided to temporarily reduce stamp duty from 5% to 2% till December 31, 2020. After that the Stamp duty from January 1, 2021 to March 31, 2021, will be 3 percent.
The last three months also saw 8,389 new launches which were a significant improvement compared to the 1,011 launches during the period of April to June, 2020.
“Builders are getting the confidence as sales are taking place and are hence launching new projects. The construction work is now progressing since the migrant force is coming back to work,” said Sinha.
The Maharashtra Chambers of Housing Industry (MCHI-CREDAI), the apex body of the builders, concurred with the report. “We are seeing the fence sitters taking a plunge as they realise this is the best time to buy a property as they are getting the best deal in the current market,” said Deepak Garodia, president, MCHI-CREDAI and also the managing director of Dosti Group.
The real estate sector was already witnessing a slowdown when the situation worsened with the lockdown, imposed to check the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. With uncertainty over jobs and many establishments cutting salaries of their employees, several prospective house buyers are believed to have put their plans on hold.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
