Mumbai Home Sales Surge In 2021 To Beat Pre-Pandemic Level
Registrations in the city jumped 70% over the year earlier in 2021.
Property registrations in Mumbai, India’s costliest real estate market, jumped to the highest in at least nine years, indicating a recovery in the segment plagued by a prolonged slowdown even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
Registrations in the city jumped 70% over the year earlier to 1.12 lakh units in 2021, Knight Frank India said in a statement. That’s also 45% higher than the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
December 2021, according to the property consultant, recorded the fastest daily registrations in the last five months, notwithstanding the uncertainty of the Omicron variant. “Compared to the daily sales rate of 293 registrations a day in the first 20 days of December, it increased to 314 registrations a day during the remaining 11 days of the month.”
“What started as a sop-led growth, sales trend in the city has now come to a certain phase of stability and indeed maturity,” Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director at Knight Frank India, was quoted as saying in the statement. “With the exception of December 2020, which was induced with stamp duty rebate leading to a surge in purchases and registrations of properties, December 2021 has witnessed the highest registration for the month of December in previous 10 years.”
According to Baijal, factors such as lower capital values and decadal low home loan interest rates have made Mumbai more affordable than previous years, making buying conditions favourable for end-users. “We expect this trend continue in the new year, barring any disruptions caused by the new Covid-19 variant.”
Key Highlights From The Report:
Focus Remains On Rs 1 Crore And Below Segment
Properties costing less than Rs 1 crore dominated in December with a contribution of 53% to total sales.
Properties priced at Rs 1-5 crore, amounting to 42% of the total sales in December, continued to be the second-largest segment.
Share Of Women Homebuyers Stays Subdued
To promote housing among women citizens, Maharashtra had introduced incentivised stamp duty rate of 4%, 1% lower than the standard rate of stamp duty in the city.
However, after 6.6% in April 2021, representation from women homebuyers has been consistently low. In December 2021, the share of women homebuyers continued to be at a seven-month low of 2.8%.
Government Revenue In December Exceeds Over The Year Ago
The government revenue stood at Rs 738 crore in December 2021 compared with Rs 681 crore a year earlier.
This comes against the backdrop of an increased stamp duty rate from 2% in December 2020 to 5% this year.