Housing sales in Chennai may increase at least 30% in 2021; prices may rise up to 5%: PropTiger

Housing sales in Chennai is likely to increase by at least 30 per cent this year, while prices may rise by up to 5 per cent on the revival of demand for residential properties because of lower interest rates and economic recovery, property brokerage firm PropTiger said on Wednesday. The new housing supply will also rise this year in Chennai, it said.
PropTiger, which is part of Singapore-based Elara Technogies that also owns Housing.com and Makaan.com, held a webinar 'Real Insight-- Residential Round-Up 2020 and outlook for Chennai's Realty Market'.

"Strong sales velocity is likely to happen in 2021, owing to the fact it took off in 2020 during the months of July, August and September extending up to the festive season...Minimum 30 per cent rise in demand is expected," said Mani Rangarajan group COO of Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.

"Broadly, we can see demand inching up to 2019 levels. The economy is gradually coming back on track," he told reporters in a virtual press conference.

In terms of new supply, Rangarajan said Chennai might surpass last year's numbers of 12,380 units much before the year ends.

On prices, Rangarajan said a significant section of buyers have realised that prices are not going to go down any further and discount offers offered by developers are also going down.

"The price of raw materials is rising. So a reduction in prices will be a challenge for developers leading to stability in them. We won't be surprised if at this point a certain degree of price appreciation also takes place, to an extent of 5 per cent," he added.

Proptiger and Housing.com Head of Research Ankita Sood said housing sales fell to 10,452 units last year from 16,386 units during 2019 because of the adverse affect of the pandemic.

She expressed confidence that sales would bounce back this year.

New housing supply declined to 12,382 units in the 2020 calendar year from 13,756 units, Sood said.

The average rate of new properties in Chennai stood at Rs 5,228 per sq ft at the end of 2020.

In October 2020, Australia-based REA Group has acquired a controlling stake in Elara Technologies.

REA Group, which is part of US-based News Corp, operates Australia's leading residential and commercial property websites - realestate.com.au and realcommercial.com.au and owns leading portals in many Asian countries.