Housing sales down 1% in Jan-Jun; gross office leasing up 3%: Knight Frank

livemint.com:

Real estate consultant Knight Frank India said housing sales have dipped 1 per cent to 1,56,640 units in January-June from 1,58,705 units in the year-ago period. In contrast, gross office space leasing increased 3 per cent to 26.1 million square feet from 25.3 million square feet. c The period also witnessed second-highest half-yearly residential sales volume in 9.5 years.

However, the gross office space leasing in the financial capital rose 9 per cent to 3.2 million square feet from 3 million square feet. As per the Knight Frank data, housing sales in Mumbai fell 8 per cent to 40,798 units in January-June from 44,200 units in the year-ago period. In Delhi-NCR, housing sales were up 3 per cent to 30,114 units from 29,101 units.

Office space leasing in NCR increased 24 per cent to 5.1 million square feet from 4.1 million square feet. Sales of residential properties in Bengaluru were down 2 per cent to 26,247 units from 26,677 units. But, office leasing in Bengaluru fell 10 per cent to 7 million square feet from 7.7 million square feet.

In Pune, housing sales fell 1 per cent to 21,670 units from 21,797 units. Leasing of office space fell 30 per cent to 2.3 million square feet from 3.3 million square feet. Housing sales in Chennai rose 3 per cent to 7,150 units from 6,951 units.

Interestingly, the leasing of office space in Chennai jumped over two-fold to 4.5 million square feet from 2.2 million square feet. In Hyderabad, housing sales increased 5 per cent to 15,355 units from 14,693 units. In contrast, the leasing of office space in Hyderabad declined 8 per cent to 2.9 million square feet from 3.2 million square feet.