Union Housing Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra on Monday launched the Housing Pricing Index (HPI), an indicator of economic activity in real estate, designed jointly by the Indian School of Business and Housing.com. The HPI will provide monthly reports on price and quantity movement in various property markets across the country.

By offering useful insights into price movement, the index could help a potential homebuyer assess the appropriate time to buy a property, while assisting sellers in knowing the most opportune moment to sell their assets. Policymakers and financial analysts can also use it as a reliable estimate to keep track of trends in the sector.

“The index has the potential to emerge as a good indicator of the health of the country’s real estate market. The real estate sector has been impacted by the Covid-led slowdown and overall uncertainty. At this time, it is essential to track the growth via credible sources that will help authorities make quicker and informed decisions during such exogenous shocks,” Mishra said while launching the indicator.

Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.com, said buyers as well as policymakers are mostly forced to rely on market anecdotes and guesswork about property price movements in Indian cities, in the absence of quality high-frequency data, especially locality specific data.

“The idea behind the launch of the HPI is to address this issue. Aside from benefitting buyers, investors and policymakers, data from HPI will also be immensely valuable for real estate developers who are considering a new locality to launch new developments,” he added.

Rajendra Srivastava, Dean ISB, said the index will help decision makers in the industry and government by providing relevant information on the real estate market and design effective action and interventions.