New Delhi: The sales of homes dropped substantially by 29 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020 as compared to the corresponding period of 2019. The new launches of houses, however, registered marginal increase of 3 percent in Q1 of 2020 as against the same period of 2019, according to a report by property consultant JLL.
The total number of homes sold in Q1 of 2020 stood at 27,451 units. The same was 38,628 units in Q1 of 2019.
As many as 40,574 new houses were launched in Q1 of 2020, up 3 percent.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to weaken GDP growth, which is expected to fall below 5 percent in FY 19-20 and potentially reach 2008-09 levels in FY 20-21. However, the residential real estate market appears to be at an advantageous position today as compared to the Global Financial Crisis, led by a series of structural reforms by the government in the past five-to-six years,” said Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head, JLL.
In the top seven cities, real estate developers have unsold stock of houses worth Rs 3,70,000 crore at the end of March 2020. The expected number of years to sell all the unsold stock has gone up to 3.3 years in Q1 of 2020 as compared to 3.2 in the fourth quarter (Q4 of 2019).
The market is expected to see slower sales in the coming quarters. Hence the time liquidate the unsold stock will take longer. The total number of unsold houses at the end of Q1 of 2020 stood at 4,55,351 as compared to 4,42,228 units at the end of Q4 of 2019.