Chandigarh, 7th June 2019: CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd, India’s leading real estate consulting firm today said that the residential real estate is showing the much-awaited signs of recovery with seven major markets in the country witnessing an increase in quarterly new launches in Q1 2019.

According to CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd, recovery in this sector is led by increased activity in the mid-end segment; followed by affordable and high-end projects.

While policy reforms such as RERA and GST brought in the much-needed transparency in the residential real estate, the present upward movement is also credited to proactive and customer-centric initiatives undertaken by real estate developers. The overall impact of both these reforms and proactive approach of the developers resulted into new launches and sales rising with an annual increase of about 11 % and 19 % respectively in 2018.

2018 also recorded sales to be marginally higher than new launches, which in itself indicates signs of a long-term revival.

“The much-awaited growth in the residential market has started to be visible now and metro cities such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are showing signs of recovery. The sector has become more end-user driven and developers are increasingly factoring in the requirements of consumers,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO - India, South East Asia, Middle East & Africa.

Besides, the broad stabilization of capital values and increasing disposable income have also created a suitable environment for the recovery of the residential sector.

Talking about the status of new projects and impact of key reforms, he added, “While we have witnessed a rise in developer interest on launching new projects, the focus still remains on completing ongoing projects and offloading existing inventory. The impact of RERA is evident in the timelines that are being committed by developers – these are more in line with market realties, thereby allowing end-users to plan their home purchases more effectively.”

Interestingly, with affordable and mid-end housing segments coming into greater focus, certain smaller / local developers also continue to launch projects across cities. The positive influence of the past year in the residential sector is also expected to continue in 2019, with developers continuing to align themselves to the recent structural reforms.