“In 2018, we witnessed over 20 percent fall in new projects launches in Greater Noida and top nine Indian cities as developers across cities focussed on executing and aggressively selling previously launched projects. This also led to unsold inventory falling by over 10 percent; and effectively these top nine cities sold 7.2 percent more units in 2018 versus 2017 even with fewer launched projects,” said Samir Jasuja, Founder and MD, PropEquity.

The realty sector is currently on the upswing, primarily for ready-to-move housing units or the projects that are nearing competition due to low-risk factors attached to them, he added.

“2019 is going to be a watershed moment for the Indian real estate sector. We are witnessing solid demand for ready-to-move and nearing completion projects, which primarily cater to end-users,” Jasuja said.
According to the data, Bengaluru saw a 19 percent rise in sales to 38,525 units during 2018, while sales in Chennai grew by 40 percent to 14,920 units.

Housing sales in Mumbai went up by 9 percent at 22,413 units, 16 percent in Pune at 49,706 units and 14 percent in Kolkata at 14,166 units.

However, Gurugram saw a dip in sales by 16 percent at 9,425 units, while sales in Hyderabad declined by 17 percent at 15,486 units.

Housing sales in Greater Noida fell by 5 percent to 3,828 units, while absorption in Thane dipped by 2 percent to 46,347 units.

Among other property consultants, Knight Frank has reported the lowest rise in housing sales during 2018 at 6 percent.

JLL India said housing sales rose 47 percent in seven cities, ANAROCK data suggested a 16 percent rise in seven cities, and PropTiger showed a 25 percent rise in sales in nine big cities. The difference in the figures is on account of variation in locations in the respective reports.