Despite the pandemic and the Indian economy being officially in recession, Pune’s real estate industry has seen healthy green shoots which has brightened the hope for better results in the New Year. Pune has seen the highest sales of tenements in the country in the current quarter. Pending demand and lowering of stamp duties by the state government is said to be the main reasons for the bullish sales in the city.
Data collated and shared by the real estate data analytics company Propequity shows that Pune has zoomed past sales as compared to cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai etc. In the third quarter of the present calendar year, Pune had seen sales of 9,412 units, a significant jump from the 5,503 sales the city had registered in the second quarter. Thane had registered sales of 9,057 units, while Bengaluru and Hyderabad had sales of 5,663 and 4,295 units respectively.
But it is not just sales. Pune has seen the highest number of new launches also. Thus, the city has reported 7,563 new unit launches, which is almost double of the 3,706 units the city had seen launched in the second quarter of 2020. Other cities have seen significantly lower launches in the country.
Pune’s sales and launch figures, which go entirely against the trend seen during the pandemic, has come as a pleasant surprise to many. Realtors said this can be analyzed in terms of pent up demand as well as various sops offered by the state government which had seen the sector going gentle on the prices.
Paramvir Singh Paul, branch director of real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank India, pointed out how both Thane and Pune had seen good sales as compared to other parts of the country. “One of the biggest catalysts for robust real estate sales in Pune has been the 300-bps reduction in stamp duty by State Government. This has been further matched by developers who have offered to absorb the remainder, thus significantly reducing the total outflow towards new home purchases. Several other factors have dovetailed well with the stamp duty cuts, such as reduction of home loan rates to historic lows, demand for upgrading to a larger house, pent up demand of 2 quarters and direct/indirect discounts offered by developers all of which culminated with the festive season of Navratri-Dusshera-Diwali. Realising that this is an opportune time to buy, fence sitters have also joined the bandwagon,” he said.
Many realtors said them most of the sales have happened in the units with 600-750 square feet carpet area and in the price bracket of Rs 35-70 lakhs.
Vineet Goyal, join managing director Kohinoor Group said the sales reflected the change in sentiments of the home buyers. “There has always been a good demand for housing. Real estate developers have been proactive in designing the right product with appropriate price,” he said.