According to data analytics firm PropEquity, housing sales surged by 21per cent year over year in January-March 2021 across seven major cities, while new supply fell by 40 per cent. Due to the second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, housing demand is expected to be sluggish in the April-June quarter.

In the first quarter of the 2021 calendar year, sales or absorption of housing units increased by 21 per cent across seven cities, to 1,05,183 units, up from 87,236 units the previous year. From 1,00,343 units, fresh supply or launches of housing units declined by 40 per cent to 59,737 units. The Metropolitan Regions of Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai (MMR), Delhi-NCR, and Pune saw a rise in housing sales, while Kolkata slipped by 20 per cent.

Samir Jasuja, founder and MD at PropEquity, said the first quarter of this calendar year was relatively better for Indian realty as compared to the last year. "There was higher demand in ready-to-move-in units and the projects nearing completion but the second wave of Covid will lead to muted demand going forward," he said. Jasuja expects sales to pick up after the end of the second wave of Covid.

Housing sales in Bengaluru increased 13 per cent to 12,262 units in January-March 2021 from 10,878 units the previous year, according to the data. Sales in Chennai increased by 29 per cent to 5,055 units from 3,930 units, while demand in Hyderabad increased by 16 per cent to 10,964 units from 9,477 units. In Maharashtra, house sales increased by 26 per cent to 41,323 units from 32,886 units, while demand in Pune increased by 31 per cent to 25,252 units from 19,221 units. Sales in the Delhi-NCR market increased by 6per cent to 6,644 units from 6,239 units. Kolkata house sales fell 20 per cent to 3,682 units in January-March 2021, compared to 4,605 units a year earlier.

PropTiger, a real estate brokerage firm, reported a 5 per cent drop in property sales from January to March 2021 across eight major cities last month. According to property expert Anarock, sales in major cities increased by 29 per cent from January to March this year. PropEquity, a real estate data, and analytics platform claim to include more than 1,18,010 projects from 34,217 developers in 44 locations. “The current Covid wave has hit the sector when Indian real estate housing demand was on the growth trajectory in the first quarter of 2021," said Ankush Kaul, President (Sales and Marketing), Ambience Group. He believes that once the current Covid spread in India stabilises, the demand will again grow.