Property Sales Down by up to 45% in 2020

As per a new report by Anarock Property Consultants, new real estate projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have seen a significant decrease as compared to last year. It goes on to say that project launches have reduced by 61 per cent with only 30,290 units launched this year. By comparison, 2019 saw nearly 77,990 launches overall.

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It’s clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit a variety of sectors pretty hard, particularly the real estate business. Further data shows that sales also fell by 45 per cent in 2020 with only 44,320 units sold this year. By comparison, 80,870 properties were sold in the metropolitan region last year. 

“The ensuing lockdowns have caused the sector to come to almost a complete halt, with very few aspiring homebuyers making enquiries. Site visits were next to impossible, with buyers, developers and brokers uncertain of the [Covid-19] situation and remaining cautious. At the same time, all the development work came to a halt as migrant construction labourers made a beeline back to their hometowns. For a while, it seemed that Covid-19 was a death stroke to the sector,” Chairman of Anarock, Anuj Puri said. 

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It is said that nearly 7 to 9 lakh on-site real estate workers from MMR returned to their home states after Mumbai became one of the largest COVID-19 hotspots in the country in April this year. 

Experts in the field believe that sales could have fallen even lower but was rescued by the necessary measures including the slashing of stamp duty.   

“The buyers were attracted by the ongoing discounts and offers, the prevailing lowest home loan interest rates and limited-period stamp duty cuts,” Puri added. The state government announced in August that it will reduce the stamp duty from 5% to 2% until December 31, 2020. The stamp duty will go up to 3% starting January 1, 2021, until March 31, 2021. 

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