Luxury housing sales double in H1 2022, Mumbai region takes top spot

14% of 184,000 units sold in the top seven Indian cities in the period were luxury homes

Demand for smart luxury homes with hi-tech surveillance and artificial intelligence (AI)-based features, including automatic temperature, light, and voice control features almost doubled in the first half (H1) of 2022 over the previous year.

According to Anarock, 184,000 units were sold in the top seven Indian cities – the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), National Capital Region (NCR), Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata – in H1 of 2022. Of this, 14 per cent (25,680 units) were luxury homes. Each unit cost more than Rs 1.5 crore. In comparison, in the comparative period in 2019, 261,000 units were sold, of which only 7 per cent (17,740 units) were luxury homes.

MMR saw the highest luxury home sales of over 13,670 units in H1 2022, followed by the NCR with 4,160 units. In 2019, they accounted for 11,890 luxury homes sold in the entire year.

Commenting on the rise in sales of luxury homes, Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Group, said: “These sales figures are even more remarkable, if we consider that it is mainly end-users who are driving luxury housing sales across these cities today. There is a clear takeaway on overall economic performance. Even though the typical buyers in this budget segment were not as impacted by the pandemic as the rest, HNIs are conscious of cost. Discounts by developers made luxury properties very attractive for these buyers and NRIs have also been snapping up luxury homes in India because of the favourable exchange rate.”

Seeing the pent-up demand for luxury homes after the pandemic’s outbreak in the top seven cities, developers launched 28,000 units (each unit cost more than Rs 1.5 crore) in H1 2022. In contrast, about 28,960 luxury homes were launched in the whole of 2019.

The Anarock report shows that approximately 97,140 luxury and ultra-luxury homes are available for sale in the top seven cities, with MMR accounting for the maximum share at 46 per cent or 44,170 luxury homes for sale.

NCR is second with 19,470 units available for sale, followed by Hyderabad (11,730 units) at third. With 1,490 units, Kolkata has the lowest number of luxury homes in stock. Only 630 such units were sold there in H1 2022.

Meanwhile, Anarock data shows that there was a decline in the share of affordable housing (units that cost less than Rs 40 lakh) in total sales from 38 per cent in 2019 to 31 per cent in H1 2022. Hyderabad saw the highest dip of 17 per cent in sales share followed by Chennai at 16 per cent.

One of the reasons for this is the economic slowdown induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the report.