New home launches more than doubled to 1,08,450 units in the first half of 2018 compared to the preceding six months indicating improved consumer sentiment and the sector putting behind demonetisation woes, research firm Liases Foras said on Tuesday.

“New launches in top eight cities have grown 106 per cent in the last half year with maximum growth in Bengaluru. This is a clear indication of improvement in market sentiments after a slowdown,” the half-yearly report said.

₹25-50 lakh bracket leads

The cost bracket of ₹25-50 lakh saw the maximum new launches at 31 per cent of the new supply followed by the ₹50 lakh to ₹1 crore segment with 28 per cent and then the under-₹25 lakh bracket (26 per cent).

The eight tier-1 cities recorded sales of 1.38 lakh units in the first half of 2018, a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 11 per cent. The affordable segment contributed most to this at 21 per cent. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region, or the MMR, reported the highest contribution to sales in the affordable segment with 4,342 units (30 per cent) followed by Ahmedabad with 2,627 units (18 per cent), Pune with 2,401 units (17 per cent) and the NCR with 2,077 units (14 per cent).

Inventory

Overall, the inventory also declined by 7 per cent from 44 months to 41 months. However, efficient markets maintain an inventory level of 8-12 months.

“The various policy interventions at the national such as an increase in the limit of the size of flats for subsidy under the PMAY, as also RERA, and GST, have helped in bringing back the confidence of both end users and developers,” the report said.

Sales received a boost from stagnant prices. The weighted average price across tier-1 cities rose a tad, at 1 per cent, to ₹6,813 per sq ft from ₹6,764 year ago.

Hyderabad and the NCR saw an increase of 3 per cent while prices in Ahmedabad rose 2 per cent followed by MMR and Pune at one per cent each. A marginal decrease of 2 per cent was observed in Bengaluru and Chennai, the report added.

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