The affordable segment witnessed a 40% jump in newly launched units compared to 2018’s, with Dombivli recording the highest supply at 9,344 units. (Representative image)

Developers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) recorded 22% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in sales to 80,869 units in 2019, the highest since 2013. The number of new units launched in CY19 was at its highest since 2016 in the region at 77,990 units. The affordable segment witnessed a 40% jump in newly launched units compared to 2018’s, with Dombivli recording the highest supply at 9,344 units.

Meanwhile, the unsold inventory fell marginally by 1% to 2.16 lakh units in the region, according to residential real estate advisory firm Trespect’s Marketwatch report. The firm said that the inventory overhang, which indicates the number of months it will take for the current unsold housing stock to get cleared in the current market scenario, stood at 33 months. The average quoted price came in at Rs 10,580 per square feet in the MMR.

Across the top seven cities, the total number of homes sold stood at 2.61 lakh, with MMR contributing the highest share of 30.9%.

After bottoming out in 2017, the sector was improving gradually, said Sunil Mishra, CEO of Trespect. “In 2014, the number of homes sold in the country was 3.4 lakh. In 2017, it had touched 2.1 lakh when the market bottomed out.”

Around this time, demonetisation took place, and the Real Estate Regulation Act and the goods and services tax (GST) were introduced, which had an impact on the market. “2010 to 2016 was the era of excesses and delayed deliveries. At a time, about five lakh houses were sold in India across the top cities. Of this, 50% were investors and 50% were end-users. Today, 95% are end-users and 5% are investors. Investors have gone out of the market and will return once they start seeing secular growth in prices,” Mishra said.

Among the micro-markets in the MMR, the peripheral central suburbs, which include Badlapur, Dombivli, Kalyan, Neral, Ambernath, Bhiwandi, Vangani and Shahapur, accounted for 56% of the new homes launched.