Demand for homes is back. A study by Anarock Property Consultants , the housing sector in the top seven cities staged an impressive comeback post-Covid 19. The study shows that housing sales in these cities increased by 29 per cent and new launches by 51 per cent during the first few months of the calendar year.

As many as 58,290 homes were sold in the top seven cities in Q1 2021 in comparison to 45,200 units in Q1 2020 – effectively breaching pre-COVID levels, the study said. Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune together accounted for 53 per cent of housing sales in this quarter – MMR sales increasing by 46 per cent annually, and Pune by 47 per cent.

With approximately 8,670 units sold, Bengaluru was the only city in the top 7 to not record a major yearly change in total sales numbers in this quarter.

Bengaluru also witnessed an 11 per cent yearly drop in new launches. MMR, Pune, and Hyderabad together contributed 66 per cent of the total new supply in the quarter, the study revealed.

“Demand boosters like stamp duty cuts, further reductions in home loan rates by most banks and ongoing developer discounts and offers helped the residential sector stage a convincing comeback. Egged on by buoyant sales and enthusiastic consumer sentiment in the October-December period, developers launched several new projects in this quarter – with some spill-over from the pandemic-dampened 2020 pipeline,” Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, said.