The fall in the property sale registrations in Mumbai was arrested in the month of September, as the registration figures remained flat compared with that in August, indicating some positive momentum in the housing sales with the onset of the festival season and some new project launches.
On a year-on-year basis, the sales witnessed a surge of 9%, but on a lower base.
Some of the residential project launches include a project by Lodha Developers in Parel and Bombay Realty in Dadar, which according to a report by domestic brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher, have received a ?decent response?. Pre-sales in project by Omkar and Larsen and Toubro at Boiwada, Sewri also contributed to the improvement in housing stock sold, said Pankaj Kapoor, founder and MD, Liases Foras, a Mumbai-based real estate rating and research firm.
?With more launches during the season, we expect sales to pick up on account of some amount of pent-up demand, which could take a couple of months to reflect in registration numbers. Besides, structurally we do not expect any significant shift in the demand scenario,? said Kejal Mehta, analyst, Prabhudas Lilladher.
The Mumbai residential realty market has been reeling under the pressure of sluggish demand and restricted supply due to changes in development control rules (DCR), over almost two years. A July 2012 report of global real estate consultancy company Knight Frank India showed there are 80,000 unsold units in Mumbai, suggesting customers? reluctance to buy property. In the last fiscal, only 45,000 units were absorbed in the MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region), which is well below the market average of 70,000 to 80,000 units sold annually, the report added.
However, after the clarity in DCR norms emerging the approvals of projects have started to kick in. Availability of finance for developers in Mumbai like elsewhere in the country remains a challenge.
However, a recent report by Cushman and Wakefield, another global real estate consultant, showed that of the total R3,500 crore invested in the real estate sector by private equity players in the first three quarters of the calendar year 2012, Mumbai continued to be the preferred destination followed closely by Bangalore and national capital region.
