New home supply and sales showed a significant improvement in the October-December quarter with 54,329 new units launched during the period in top-eight cities, a new report on the performance of the real estate sector in 2020 revealed. This seems to be in line with the ongoing economic recovery.

According to Real Insight Q4 2020, a quarterly analysis of India's eight prime residential markets by real estate brokerage firm PropTiger.com, new launches grew by 173 per cent quarter-on-quarter, compared to 19,865 units that were launched in the July-September period. There was also a 12 per cent year-on-year growth over the 48,530 new units that were launched in the quarter ending December in 2019. This was the first quarter since the onset of the pandemic where new launches witnessed a YoY growth, signaling a turnaround in the market, the report said.

In terms of home sales, the October-December quarter showed a 68 per cent improvement compared to the preceding quarter. However, compared to the same period last year, this was 27 per cent lower.

The eight cities covered in the survey included Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Except for Ahmedabad, home sales increased across all other cities when compared to the preceding quarter. Mumbai and Pune contributed over 50 per cent of the sales during the quarter with 31 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, the report highlighted.

“All factors considered, the sector has shown remarkable tenacity in 2020 against unprecedented odds that have caused the economy to contract and impacted consumer spending. The fact that housing sales in India's key markets have started to bounce back, despite the general gloom caused by the pandemic, shows the immense potential of the real estate sector. The sector's performance seems particularly impressive given that the pandemic has impacted the income-generating capacity of a large number of people. End-users and investors continue to feel confident about investing in real estate. Prices continued to remain stable and the overall outlook looks positive,” said Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO of Housing.com, Makaan.com, and PropTiger.com.