At a time when stalled projects and construction delays mar the Indian real estate scenario, Chennai leads the race among the major markets in terms of completed housing projects, showed a report by Anarock Property Consultants.

Chennai saw new launches of over 1.32 lakh units between 2013 and Q3 2020, out of which 61 per cent is already completed. In stark contrast, the National Capital Region (NCR) saw over 5.54 lakh units of new supply launched in this period, of which just 26 per cent units are completed, it said.

The southern markets seem to be better placed regarding completion of projects as Bengaluru and Hyderabad follow Chennai in the list.

"Out of the total new housing unit launches in each top city between 2013 till Q3 2020, Chennai has the highest share of ready/completed homes at 61 per cent of its total inventory, followed by Bengaluru with 48 per cent and Hyderabad at 44 per cent," the report said.

Altogether over 23 lakh units were launched between 2013 and Q3 2020 across the top 7 cities, of which 34 per cent (around 7.92 lakh units) is completed. Another 19 per cent is scheduled to complete within the next 12 months, and another 19 per cent between one to two years.

Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants says: "Predominantly driven by end-users from the IT/ITeS sector, the conservative housing markets of the southern cities also benefit from the proactive project completion focus of developers active there."

Out of all the projects launched and completed between 2013-to the date, the average time to complete projects in Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad is between 4.1 – 4.3 years for smaller projects (with 100-500 units each) and between 5.5 – 5.9 years for large projects (over 500 units each). This is significantly less than the average completion time in NCR, where it is 6 years and 7.2 years, respectively, showed the report..