'Bye-bye pandemic': Real estate residential market increases by 10% in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The city has witnessed a 10 percent increase in the new launches in the real estate residential market in the first quarter (Q1) compared to the corresponding period of 2021, according to Knight and Frank's report. However, the city has just seen an increase of 1 percent in sales in Q1 2022 as compared to Q1 2021.

However, the city has seen the strongest recovery relative to pre-pandemic levels in terms of sales as well as launches. The city has seen a 304 percent increase in new launches in Q1 2022 as compared to Q1 2019. The city has seen a 172 percent increase in sales in Q1 2022 as compared to Q1 2019.

According to the report, the operational hurdles triggered by the first and second wave had caused sales volumes to falter during Q2 2020 and Q2 2021, the Omicron variant in Q1 2022 had no impact on the residential market which achieved record sales and launch volumes during this quarter.

The pandemic had imposed severe restrictions on human mobility and people were compelled to stay indoors for a significant part of the past two years. This vastly increased the perceived value of one's home in the overall scheme of things, and along with the prevailing low-interest rates, it sparked and sustained homebuyer interest in the residential market.

"Homebuyers have been more inclined to acquire ready or near-ready inventory to minimize completion risk in recent quarters. However, the acute need for a lifestyle upgrade has made homebuyers increasingly willing to acquire newly launched properties at relatively lower prices," said the report.

The report also added that to entice buyers and push sales, developers had pursued an aggressive pricing strategy over the past few quarters with spot discounts, finance deals, stamp duty waivers, and other freebies. This incidence was observed to have reduced by the end of 2021 as the price decline in most markets had been arrested.