Ready homes likely to hit 6-year high in 2023, says Anarock report

Around 544,000 homes may be ready for you to move in across major Indian cities in calendar year 2023 (CY23) — the highest in six years — owing to pent up demand and fast project completions.

This comes on the back of a phenomenal completion rate in CY22, which was the highest in five years at 402,000 units, according to property consultant Anarock.

As a result of high pace of project completions, record high housing sales and new launches, the year 2022 witnessed 44 per cent higher completions year-on-year (YoY) across seven major cities, as against 279,000 units completed in CY21, according to the realty consultant.

The seven major cities are Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata.

It said that the maximum completions in CY23 were projected from Delhi-NCR with approximately 166,850 units scheduled to be completed during the year. 

However, in CY22, NCR saw 86,300 units completed, the same as CY21.

Calling Delhi-NCR one of the most remarkable turnaround stories, Anuj Puri, chairman, Anarock group, said, “From being the region with the highest oversupply in those years, it has become one of the most responsible and rational in terms of housing inventory deployment. Developers here are laser-focused on timely completions, prioritising this critical aspect over launching new projects, so that supply remains aligned with actual demand.”

MMR was expected to get about 132,900 completed units by the year-end.

However in CY22, MMR saw the maximum completions of the total completed homes at 126,720 units — almost 80 per cent more than the 2021 figure of 70,500 units.

Puri said 2022 was a watershed year for the Indian housing sector, with sales breaching the previous peak of 2014. In response to this high demand, developers remained focused on completing their previously launched projects. 

CY22 also logged the highest rate of completions with 402,000 units between 2017 and 2022 across the top 7 cities, he added. 

Meanwhile, Pune registered 84,200 completed units in CY22, against 46,080 units in CY21. Bengaluru,  Hyderabad, and Chennai witnessed the combined completion of 81,580 units in CY22, as against 63,870 units in CY21. 

As many as 23,190 units were completed in Kolkata during CY22 as against 11,620 units in CY21. 

By the year's end, around 73,470 units are expected to see completion in Bengaluru. Hyderabad has also 25,120 units scheduled for completion, while in Kolkata 33,040 units are to be completed during this year.

However, Chennai has the lowest stock of unit completions as only 18,550 units are scheduled for CY23.

"Construction activity was, and will hopefully remain, least impacted even if the pandemic resurfaces, so most completions in 2023 may be according to the schedule. Certainly, developers are committed to completing previously launched projects before launching new ones,” Puri said.