Highest in 5 yrs: ‘Over 12K housing units launched in city from July to Dec, 2022’

KOLKATA: Kolkata has witnessed sale of 12,909 housing units in the year 2022 (July to December), while new launches were recorded at 12,330 units at the same time. New launches were at the highest in the past five years. The demand sustenance from homebuyers coupled with high input costs have led to a 4 percent YoY increase in average residential prices.

In Knight Frank India’s latest report, India Real Estate – Residential and Commercial (July – December 2022), it is cited that on the office market performance, the ‘return to work’ transition during the year 2022 has led the city to clock gross office leasing of 1.1 mn sq ft, representing a 42 per cent YoY growth over 2021 while new office completions remained at 200,000 sq ft in 2022.The momentum of sales saw a boost in 2021 and earlier part of 2022 due to the benefit of 2 per cent stamp duty remission. Of all the micro-markets, Rajarhat and South Zone constituted 45 per cent and 36 per cent of the total units launched in this period.

Rajarhat’s connectivity to other parts of Kolkata and enhanced social infrastructure has been instrumental for the housing demand here.

Kolkata recorded a 4 per cent YoY increase in average residential prices in H2 2022 on the pricing parameter. Prolonged demand and a rise in input costs has contributed to rise in property prices.

In terms of the office space demand by different sectors, the Information Technology (IT) sector witnessed an expansion in share from 22 per cent in H2 2021 to 28 per cent in H2 2022. The IT sector’s share in Kolkata has grown despite the deferment of expansion plans by some players.

Abhijit Das - Senior Director, East at Knight Frank India said: “Residential sales in Kolkata witnessed similar robustness as in other cities of the country during 2021 and majority of 2022. The higher volume was a combination of normalcy returning, customer friendly buying terms offered by the developers and growth in the economy in general.

Sushil Mohta , Chairman, Merlin Group and president, Credai, Bengal said: “The year 2022 was a year of resurgence of the real estate sector in India. Despite a few headwinds like global inflation and geopolitical tension, rising property prices and increase in interest rate, the sector grew due to the strong demand in domestic sector. The real estate market in Kolkata also continued to tread the growth trajectory in the year 2022. Kolkata residential market alone witnessed 17 percent increase in new launches in 2022, up from 13746 units in 2021 to 16088 units. The uptick was supported by the low home loan rate that saw increase in May last year. The extension of the rebate in stamp duty and circle rate by the state government catapulted this growth.”

The office market also recorded a transaction of 1.1 million sq m in Kolkata. He expected that the year 2023 will also be a good year for the sector as the demand for quality home will be on the rise despite the hike on interest rate as buyers have taken Home loan in their stride.