MUMBAI: The unabated demand-supply gap in the residential property market has created a pile-up of 2,13,742 unsold units, according to a Knight Frank India report released on Tuesday. The unsold inventory could take almost three years to sell.

The half-yearly report, India Real Estate Outlook, analyses the residential and office market performance in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) between January and June 2014.

Demand in the region dropped by a whopping 25% during this period in comparison with the same period last year. “Buyers continued to sit on the fence for the most part of H1 2014 in anticipation that the new and stable leadership at the Centre would revive the ailing economy,” it said

The most expensive location (south Mumbai) accounts for less than 1% of the 4,47,294 under-construction units in the MMR. “A comparison with all other micro-markets in MMR shows that the inventory level in south Mumbai market will take maximum time of 18 quarters (4.5 years) to sell,” it said.

Central Mumbai, on the other hand, emerged as a prominent residential market on the back of premium residential and social segment and corporate headquarters from manufacturing, media and consulting sectors. It will take almost four years to clear the inventory that has been in the market for the past nine quarters.

The western suburbs saw a 19% jump in new launches compared to 12% during the same period last year. This belt has an unsold inventory of over three years.

With developers deferring fresh launches, new project completions dropped by 25% in H1 2014 compared to the same period last year.

