Housing sales in Hyderabad fall 86%

Hyderabad: Despite the stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic on housing sales and new supply, property prices have continued to move upwards in Hyderabad during the April-June period of 2020, shows a recent report by PropTiger.

In Hyderabad, 2,049 new homes were launched during the quarter, a year-over-year decline of 61 per cent during the quarter. Sales declined more significantly with an 86 per cent fall compared to the prior year quarter. Housing launches and sales metrics decreased on a quarter-over-quarter basis with new launches declining 48 per cent and sales lower by 80 per cent.

According to the report titled, 'Real Insight: Q2 2020', builders sold 1,099 homes in the City of Nizams during the quarter ended June 30. Given higher prices over the last couple of years, more than 80 per cent of the new launches were priced at over Rs 1 crore with 2BHK/3BHK accounting for over 90 per cent of the new supply.

Hafeezpet, HITEC City and Patancheru were the most prominent localities that witnessed the highest number of new launches in the city.

"Unlike most other housing markets, price growth in Hyderabad has been significant in the past few years. While this has provided good returns for buyers, Hyderabad is now the most expensive market in the south. Demand decline is largely temporary and is due to the economic uncertainty but will revive over the next few quarters. In fact, Hyderabad's commercial market has performed well over the last couple of years and residential demand tends to lag commercial supply absorption," said Mani Rangarajan, Group COO, Housing.com, Makaan.com & PropTiger.com

While we will see new launches this year, volumes may not be comparable to prior years. Prices may continue to expand albeit not at the same pace as over the last few years, explained.

Rangarajan further added, "On the positive side, we are seeing increasing digitization of real estate with significant growth in online demand and developers and buyers moving strongly along the adoption curve for products such as virtual tours, drone shoots, video calls, and online booking platforms. More than 90 per cent of all real estate search and discovery has moved online".

We may be seeing a significant shift in the real-estate sector where technology will play a significant role in the property renting and buying process and property registration may move online in some states. While physical site visits will remain important, buyers will use technology to discover new homes, experience virtual site visits with some buyers booking online. Given social distancing and the use of technology, buyers will likely make fewer site visits than before, he said.

Lowest inventory among 8 cities

Being India's pharmaceutical capital and an IT stronghold, the city currently has the lowest level of unsold inventory across the eight prime residential markets at 32,068 units or 19 months overhang. Unsold inventory declined by 20 per cent and represented just 4 per cent of the 738,336 unsold units across India's eight prime residential markets.

Property value appreciates 7%

Unlike most other markets where price growth has remained stagnant, Hyderabad residential prices increased seven per cent over the last year with weighted average prices at Rs, 5,505 per square foot. Hyderabad is now the second most expensive property market among the eight cities included in the analysis. Mumbai Metropolitan Region retains its position as the city with most expensive real estate where average value of properties is currently estimated at Rs 9,490 per square foot.