New launches in NCR drop 68 pc: Knight Frank report

Confirming slowdown in residential segment, new launches dropped by a whopping 68 per cent in the first half this year in the real estate market in the NCR, according to a Knight Frank India report.

The third edition of the half-yearly report – India Real Estate, which was launched on Wednesday, presents a comprehensive analysis of the residential and office market performance of the NCR market for the period between January–June 2015.

What has hit the real estate appetite of the National Capital Region is “policy fallacies and project delays”, says the report as sales witnessed a drop of 50 per cent YOY.

Terming affordable homes as the “new-found love” of Gurgaon, the report says that 91 per cent of the new launches in the area were under the Rs 15-lakh bracket

In office space, however, the NCR has maintained the 2014 turnaround story. The office absorption touched 3.7 million sqft in the first half of the year 2015, as per the report. Gurgaon witnessed maximum number of office deals (within NCR) in H1 2015; DLF Cyber City maintained its prominence, while Golf Course Road and  Golf Course Extension emerge as the next most preferred office locations in the report.

Speaking on the findings, Rajeev Bairathi – Executive Director, North and Capital Markets, Knight Frank India, said “The commercial segment continued to pick up further momentum on the back of large requirements from corporate occupiers. This has led to vacancy levels going below 10 per cent in some of the key micro markets resulting into an upward pressure on lease rentals.”

Mudassir Zaidi – National Director, Residential Agency, Knight Frank India, said “The realty market in NCR will continue to remain muted in the second half of 2015. However, the sales volume in H1 2015 has shown an increase of 18 per cent from the bottomed H2 2014. Taking cognizance of the market, developers will keep new launches in check in the second half of 2015. We estimate new launches to stay below 20,000 units in the second half.”