Luxury housing sales in Mumbai (apartments worth over Rs 10 crore) and Pune (apartments worth over Rs 5 crore) was highest in 2021 in four years and may set a new record in 2022, according to a joint report by India Sotheby’s International Realty and CRE Matrix.

According to data by CRE matrix, 1,214 luxury residential properties worth Rs 20,255 crore were sold in Mumbai in 2021 against 598 units worth Rs 9,872 crore in 2018.

"Mumbai's luxury housing market has performed exceedingly well during the last year. This is pretty much in line with the sales velocity for luxury homes we have witnessed across the globe, including global gateway cities like London, New York and Dubai. We believe, this is just the beginning of a very positive and bullish residential real estate cycle,” said Ashwin Chadha, President, India Sotheby's International Realty.

Mumbai saw sales of luxury housing properties worth Rs 9,492 crore in the previous calendar year. In terms of volumes, luxury housing sales in Mumbai were 1,214 units during 2021 as compared to 548 units in the previous year. The top luxury micro-markets in Mumbai are Worli, Lower Parel, Bandra, Tardeo, Prabhadevi and Andheri.

Worli alone contributed about 20 per cent of the overall Mumbai luxury market. In Mumbai, the ratio of sales in primary and secondary markets has been 2/3rd primary and 1/3rd secondary.

As per the data, 848 units were sold in Mumbai's primary market (fresh sales) for Rs 13,549 crore during 2021 as against 349 units worth Rs 6,275 crore in the previous year.

In Mumbai's secondary market (re-sale), 366 units were sold for Rs 6,706 crore during the last year as compared to 199 units valued at Rs 3,217 crore in the 2020 calendar year.

Pune also witnessed similar trends with 208 units worth Rs 1,407 crore sold in 2021 against 127 units worth Rs 832 crore in 2017.

"Housing prices have remained more or less stagnant since the last 5-6 years across all segments and price brackets. The well informed HNI buyers have used this as an opportunity to buy right priced assets for wealth creation. We are already witnessing prices firm up and starting to rise," said Abhishek Kiran Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, CRE Matrix.

The concept of home ownership has gained tremendous importance during this pandemic. Consumers are looking to buy bigger and better homes from branded developers who have a decent track record of executing projects on time. "During the lockdowns, HNIs and ultra HNIs got the much-needed break to analyze and strengthen their real estate portfolio," added Gupta.

The sales trend is likely to remain buoyant even during this year as 306 luxury housing units worth Rs 4,877 crore have already been sold in Mumbai during the January-March quarter of 2022 calendar year.

India Sotheby’s International Realty (ISIR) has recently acquired a 12% stake in CRE Matrix, a data analytics platform for residential and commercial real estate, for about Rs 5.5 crore.

The stake buy comes amid an increase in demand for luxury properties during the coronavirus pandemic.

India SIR sold 182 luxury properties worth $280 million during 2021 compared with 102 properties valued at $190 million in the previous year. The growth in sale of properties in value terms was 47% while in volume terms it was 78%.

Source: Economic Times