Indian real estate sector is sitting on a huge pile of inventory. As per a recent report, overall unsold inventory across top seven cities stands at 6.56 lakh units at the end of September quarter.
The number seems to be staggering though the housing inventory overhang has gone down from 30 months as the third quarter of 2019 from 37 months in the corresponding time in 2018. Inventory overhang in months indicates the number of months it shall take for the unsold housing stock to get cleared in the current market scenario. At any given point, an inventory overhang of 18-24 months is considered quite healthy.
The lowest inventory is reported in Bengaluru while Delhi NCR is topping the charts once again. The former’s overhang is 15 months while NCR will take some 44 months to clear the unsold housing stock of 1.78 lakh housing units.
Bengaluru is witnessing a constant decline in housing inventory overhang. The city is followed by Hyderabad with overhang of 16 months and Pune with overhang of 27 months.
Chennai is sitting with inventory overhang of 31 months. MMR has shown a sharp decline in inventory with overhang sliding to 34 months as on Q3 2019 as compared to 46 months in Q3 2018 and 51 months in Q3 2017.
Kolkata’s housing inventory also saw a decline and will take another 38 months to clear, said the ANAROCK report.
Overall, the inventory stock of all the top seven cities saw a minor Y-O-Y decline of 5 percent.
Anuj Puri, Chairman- ANAROCK, told Business Standard, “If we look back and compare the yearly change in Q3 CY18 with that of the corresponding period in 2017, there was only a minor reduction — from 39 months in Q3 CY17 to 37 months in Q3 CY18. Thus, the annual change of unsold inventory overhang in the third quarter of 2019 was fairly better than the previous year. This suggests that builders now are following a laser-focused approach towards clearing their previous unsold stock. New launches in Q3 CY19 fell 13%, against the year-ago period in the top 7 cities, whereas it had increased by 51% in Q3 CY18, against Q3 CY17.”
Here are more real estate reports.