Over 4.35 lakh new homes completed last yr in 7 cities

New Delhi: India's seven major cities witnessed an annual 8 per cent rise in the completion of housing units last year at 4.35 lakh units as developers' cash flows improved on better sales, according to Anarock.

Real estate consultant showed that 4,35,045 units were completed during last year, as against 4.02 lakh units in the previous year. The data pertains to the primary (first sale) residential market. In Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), 1,43,500 housing units were completed last year, up 13 per cent from 1,26,720 units in the previous year. The completion of housing units in Delhi-NCR rose 32 per cent to 1,14,280 units, as against 86,300 units in 2022.

"The Indian residential sector is unlikely to forget 2023, which was nothing less than phenomenal at every level. Housing sales breached the previous peak levels of 2022 and remain robust in 2024. These sales statistics - along with RERA-related commitments - have encouraged developers to stay focused on completing existing inventory," Anarock Chairman Anuj Puri said.

With housing demand remaining high, he said developers are prioritising project completions. "Moreover, many large developers have also taken over the task of bringing many stuck or completely stalled projects by other players to completion," Puri said, while listing out the reasons for higher execution levels.

Among other cities, the completion of homes in Pune declined 23 per cent to 65,000 units in 2023, from 84,200 units in 2022. Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai collectively saw 87,190 units completed in 2023, as against 81,580 units in 2022. In Kolkata, 25,075 units were completed in 2023, as against 23,190 units in 2022.

Proptech firm Reloy Founder and CEO Akhil Saraf said the housing market is gradually becoming more organised after the passage of realty law RERA. Real estate developers are focusing a lot on customer relationship management (CRM) and project executions, said Saraf, whose firm helps builders in generating referral sales.

Anarock also highlighted that the completion of units was the highest since 2017. As many as 2,04,200 units were completed in 2017, 2,46,140 units in 2018, 2,98,450 units in 2019, 2,14,370 units in 2020, 2,78,650 units in 2021. Record sales of residential properties in 2023 is one of the major factors for better execution of projects. As per the data, housing sales rose 31 per cent last year to nearly 4.77 lakh units across these seven cities, despite rise in prices by an average 15 per cent, and higher mortgage rates.