HOUSING sales that fell 40-50 per cent across 7-8 major cities last year due to the pandemic could bounce back to 2019-level this year, if there is no complete lockdown to curb the second wave of COVID-19, realtors’ body CREDAI said on Wednesday. Addressing a virtual press conference, CREDAI National President Harsh Vardhan Patodia said housing sales increased during the January-March quarter of 2021 and hoped that the trend will continue over the next nine months.He expressed concern over the second major wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and said it will take time to assess the impact.

 

“We are worried over the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Patodia, who took charge as the President from April 1 this year. Asked about the outlook for this year considering a fresh wave of coronavirus across the country, he said housing sales rose by 44 per cent in the January-March quarter, as per the Knight Frank India data. Sales should bounce back to 2019-level provided the pandemic remains under control and there is no imposition of complete lockdown of economic activities as it was seen during April-May last year. According to Knight Frank India, sales of residential properties fell 37 per cent to 1,54,534 units in 2020 across eight cities as compared to 2,45,861 units in previous year. Anaraock had said the total home sales in seven cities declined to 1.38 lakh units in 2020 against 2.61 lakh units in 2019, while PropTiger reported a 47 per cent decline in housing sales to 1,82,639 units in 2020 from 3,47,586 units in 2019.