Housing sales drop 22% in July-Sep quarter in India's 8 big cities

New Delhi: Housing sales fell 22 percent in eight major cities to 33,304 units during the September quarter due to muted end-user demand, according to a report by PropEquity Research.As many as 42,461 units were sold in the second quarter this year in Gurgaon, NOIDA, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai.[caption id="attachment_2946886" align="alignleft" width="380"] Agencies[/caption]"During Q3, 2016, Key residential markets across India remains in a state of inertia with all indicators showing signs of correction," PropEquity, a real estate data, research and analytics firm, said in the report."Housing demand across key cities declined by 22 per cent largely on account of muted end-users demand even when developers continue to offer heavy discounts and benefits," it added.New launches also fell by 22 percent at 22,745 units from the previous quarter, while unsold stocks declined by 3 percent.Capital values across cities remained under pressure during the third quarter. Only Noida (2 percent) and Mumbai (1 percent) registered marginal price increase on QoQ basis, while in Hyderabad, prices were static, the report said."Real estate sector in India, especially housing is going through a critical transition phase which will eventually weed out unethical and unprofessional developers."The third quarter reiterated our view that prices continue to stay weak, and in our view are bottoming out. Developers especially in North India will aggressively clear out their unsold inventories before focusing on new launches,"PropEquity CEO and Founder Samir Jasuja said.