MUMBAI: More residential apartments were sold across India's top seven markets in the first three quarters of 2016 than the number of new units launched during the period.This has happened for the first time in eight years.Experts said this reflects a new reality wherein markets are maturing and developers are consciously trying to lessen inventory levels.Nearly 1.20 lakh housing units were sold across Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Delhi-National Capital Region, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata between January and October, according to JLL India, while 1.06 lakh new units were launched.“With demonetisation and several other regulatory reforms like Real Estate Regulatory Bill, the Benami Transactions Bill and the GST, the time may now be ripe for market which will see the genuine buyer coming back,“ said Ramesh Nair, chief operating officer of JLL India.Nair said demonetisation will have a short-term impact on sales as also on launches.ET Realty Index has fallen 14.8% since November 8 when the government announced the ban of high-denomenation currency notes.Real estate sector has been grappling with poor sales over the past few years.“Companies, specifically in the mid-cap space, that have locked strong pre-sales over the past few years should benefit from earnings scale up despite a slow physical market. This will be driven by pending recognition of sales already executed along with prospects of improved macro-led rise in new sales,“ Edelweiss Securities said in a recent report.It has a `buy' rating on Oberoi Realty , Sobha, Sunteck Realty Godrej Properties and Brigade Enterprises . Edelweiss Securities said the developers' balance sheets will continue to improve due to better internal accruals and management.This will enable them to deploy excess funds towards value accretive land or project acquisition and help grow their net asset values.In 2016, the first quarter saw a higher number of launches than sales, followed by a slowdown in successive quarters. In the third quarter, the number of apartments sold across India exceeded new launches by more than 10,000 units.“Overall, this trend seems here to stay for some more quarters.It would be interesting to see if 2016 sets a new benchmark in units launched versus units sold, surpassing the historic year of 2008 for good. This data should also serve as an eye opener for fence-sitters expecting a price drop, which may not hap pen,“ Nair said.“The negative sentiment gripping this sector from the last one year or so may well be misplaced,“ Nair said.In Delhi-NCR, the gap between the newly launched units and the units sold was as high as 20,000 during the first three quarters of this year.JLL data indicates that this is not just a clear trend across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru, but also in the other cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.