Bengaluru housing sales, office space leasing decline in January to June period: Knight Frank

India saw a marginal fall in sales and an increase in office space leasing and housing prices in the first half of the year across eight major cities.

Amid a rise in housing prices, India's property market saw a marginal fall in sales and an increase in office space leasing in the first half of the year across eight major cities, an analysis by real estate consultancy firm, Knight Frank India, said.

Bengaluru city saw a fall in both sales of residential properties and office leasing.(HT Photo)

Housing sales in India remained steady, dipping only by 1 per cent, while the gross office space leasing rose 3 per cent, and housing prices increased 2 to 10 per cent compared to last year. The firm studied the real estate market from the January to June period in cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.

Bengaluru city saw a fall in both sales of residential properties and office leasing, of 2 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively. Sales of residential properties declined from 26,677 units to 26,247 units, while office leasing dived to 7 million sqft from 7.7 million sqft.

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Housing sales in Mumbai reduced by 8 per cent to 40,798 units from 44,200 units, with gross office space leasing surging 9 per cent to 3.2 million square feet from 3 million square feet.

Housing sales and office space leasing were both higher in Delhi-NCR compared to the year-ago period, up 3 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively. Comparatively, Pune saw a downfall in both the metrics, with housing sales inching down 1 per cent, while office space leasing plummeted 30 per cent.

Tamil Nadu capital Chennai saw a two-fold jump in the leasing of office space, from 2.2 million square feet to 4.5 million square feet, while housing sales also picked up pace by 3 per cent to 7,150 units from 6,951 units.

READ | Bengaluru sees spike in housing prices, rentals; sales drop: Knight Frank

Hyderabad's housing sales increased by 5 per cent, however, leasing of office space saw a decline of 8 per cent. Meanwhile, sales in Kolkata went up 3 per cent, while office demand dropped 3 per cent.

Ahmedabad's office space leasing sunk by 59 per cent while housing sales also dipped 3 per cent.

Shishir Baijal, the CMD of Knight Frank India, as quoted by news agency PTI, said, “Housing and office markets across major cities have remained steady in the first half of this calendar year despite rise in interest rates on home loans and global headwinds. A strong positive consumer sentiment was observed and sales have remained above 1.5 lakh units consistently in the six- month period. The share of sale of luxury homes in the overall housing sales has risen. The housing demand is driven by mid and premium segment while the share of affordable housing in sales has come down."

(With PTI inputs)