Last year Pune’s residential real estate market saw the best sales since 2013 despite a 7 percent year-on-year rise in prices. The annual real estate report issued by property consultant Knight Frank showed the city had recorded sales of 43,410 units in 2022, which the report said was a rise of 17 percent from the previous year. In its report, the firm said a sizeable number of the homebuyers were from the salaried class who remained undeterred despite the recent rise in repo rates and home interest rates.
Commenting on the performance of the Pune real estate market, Mr. Ram Naik, Director, of The Guardians Real Estate Advisory said, “Despite various macro-level challenges, the Pune residential real estate market has proven to be resilient. The reopening of the offices after the pandemic has acted as a catalyst to boost property sales in Pune. Factors such as the strategic location of the city and increasing job opportunities for newcomers are bolstering the demand for properties in Pune. The affordability factor and the interest rates, which were lower than the pre-pandemic levels, have provided the much-needed fillip to the home-buying activity in the city. Moreover, the government reforms have improved transparency and started a trend towards more regulation and orderly growth of the real estate sector in the city.”
Reiterating the same, Mr. Rajendra Pate, President, of NAREDCO Pune said, “Pune’s real estate market has again shown its dominance in 2022 as demand surged considerably to post the pandemic. Even after the hike in property prices, the growth momentum continued in Pune which highlighted the fact that there was a genuine demand in the market. In fact, the rising interest rates, higher stamp duty, and 1% metro cess have not deterred the sentiments of the home buyers in Pune. The housing demand has sustained in Pune on the back of several factors like high rentals, opportunities in the job market, and relatively affordable homes than other markets. The developers too came forward and absorbed the burden of the homebuyers by offering attractive payment plans or by waiving the stamp duty and GST.”
Most of the sales, the report said, were in the south, east and west zones of the city. Sales for 2022 were equally distributed in both halves with the first half of the year recording 21,613 units as compared to 21,247 units in the second half.
The robust sales have been recorded even as realtors pass on the increased raw material cost to the buyer. Knight Frank’s survey showed a 7 percent rise in prices per square foot on a year-on-year basis. Most of the sales were in the ticket size between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. This range accounted for 40 percent of the sales in the first half of 2021 and accounted for 45 percent of the sales in the first half of 2022.
Sales in the below Rs 50 lakh ticket size showed a decline. “This change in share contribution can be attributed to an overall rise in the price of products. INR 1 crore properties also recorded an increase in share take up from 8% in H1 2022 to 9% H2 2022,” the report said.
While sales continued on a positive note, new launches saw a slight 5 percent decline in 2022. Last year 38,640 units were launched in the city.