Home sales in Delhi-NCR falls flat in Q1, 2024, shows data

Despite undergoing a transformation through major infrastructural development projects, the residential real estate market in and around the country’s capital Delhi is slowing down. Latest data shows, that while sales of residential homes in most leading markets in the country grew during January-March (Q1, 2024) quarter, sales in the National Capital Region of Delhi remained flat.

During the quarter, home sales in India’s top eight cities - Mumbai, NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata - surged 9% year-on-year as per Knight Frank India. In Q1, 2024, 86,345 units were sold in these markets - up from 79,126 units in Q1, 2023. Home sales in the largest market, Mumbai, grew by 17%, while in booming markets like Hyderabad and Pune, it grew by 15% and 14%, respectively.

However, in NCR, sales of residential units remained flat - at 15,527 units - growing by a meagre 1% from the 15,392 units that were sold in the corresponding quarter previous year. 

Data from Anarock Research shows, in Delhi-NCR, the fall in new launches has been steep. New launches in the capital region plunged by 42% year-on-year - from 12,450 units to 7,270 units in Q1, 2024. Notably, 55% of the new supply was added in the ultra-luxury segment (homes priced above Rs 2.5 crore). Among the top cities, NCR saw the highest decline of 27% in its unsold stock in Q1 2024. NCR's unsold stock is currently lower than in other prominent cities like MMR, Pune, and Hyderabad. 

According to industry experts, one of the key factors that have muted the growth in the market is costlier land prices that, coupled with rising raw material and logistics costs, have made affordable and mid-segment housing unviable. As developers shy away from launching projects in the mass market price segments, home sales have got impacted in the region in the recent quarters, post-COVID. Out of the 15,527 units sold in NCR during Q1, 2024 - 10,558 units or 68% were in the above Rs 1 crore price segment. While the share of homes priced below Rs 50 lakh a unit was less than 10%. In comparison, in Mumbai the share of affordable homes (priced below Rs 50 lakh) was 44%.