New Delhi: With all the recent buzz around affordable housing in the country, latest data shows sales of affordable residential units (priced up to Rs 25 lakh) has declined 10 percent while that of ultra luxury segment (residential units priced Rs 2 crore and above) has increased by 2 percent first quarter (Q1) of the current fiscal as compared to the same period of last financial year, according to real estate consultancy Liases Foras.
The total number of affordable apartments sold during Q1 of the current fiscal stood at 12,820 in the top eight cities of the country, the same was 14,186 units in 2018-19 fiscal. On the other hand, the number of ultra luxury units sold during Q1 of the current financial year was 3,459 as against 3,388 units in 2018-19 fiscal.
This is despite the fact that the Goods & Services Tax of affordable apartments was sharply cut to 1 percent in February 2019, that is, in fourth quarter of the last fiscal from 8 percent prior to this period.
The sales of houses priced between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 50 lakh also decreased by 2 percent in Q1 of the current fiscal as compared to same period of the previous fiscal. The total number of units sold in this price bracket in Q1 of 2019-20 stood at 24,651 while the same was 25,255 in the corresponding period of 2018-19 fiscal.