New Delhi: The total launches of houses in the top cities of the country dropped by more than half to just 2.30 lakh units in 2019 as compared to 2014. In clear signs of distress in the real estate, the developers in the top 7 cities of the country launched 58 percent fewer houses in 2019 as against 2014. The total number of homes launched in 2014 was 5.44 lakh, as per data provided by ANAROCK Property Consultants.
The real estate industry was just beginning to feel the headwinds of slowdown in 2014 after almost a decade of brilliant run in the country and by 2019, things became so bad that the developers resorted to much fewer launches on the back of dwindling sales and huge piled up inventory of unsold houses. The fewer launches were despite the softer interest rates for hoe loan borrowers in 2019.
The sharpest decline was witnessed in Delhi NCR and Kolkata where the new launches came down by a whopping 73 percent in the 5 year period. Delhi NCR saw launches of 1.73 lakh homes in 2014 which came dropped to just 46,920 units in 2019. In Kolkata, as many as 34,220 homes were launches in 2014 which declined to mere 9,420 units in 2019.
Mumbai too saw a huge drop. The new launches crashed 63 percent in the period. The number of houses launched in 2019 stood at just 49,260 whereas in 2014, the figure was 1.34 lakh.
Pune was better off and witnessed a drop of only38 percent in the five year period. The number of new launches in 2014 was 74,600 units which came down to 46, 110 units in 2019.
Bengaluru saw launches of 85,950 houses in 2014 which came down to 50,450 units in 2019, a drop of 41 percent. Chennai saw a drop of 54 percent with 28,540 units launched in 2014 and 13,000 units launched in 2014.
Hyderabad stood from rest of the top cities. The city witnessed launches of 14,530 units in 2014 which went up to 14,840 units in 2019.