Real Estate

If you thought 2014 would provide a silver lining for Mumbai's residential situation, here's a reality check for you: 2014 will not be better but worse as the number of unsold flats in ready as well as under-construction projects has reached an all-time high  of 130,000 due to weak demand and high prices. According to real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank's residential report for the second quarter of FY2013, Mumbai's property market is in dire straits as the unsold inventory in Mumbai Metropolitan Region is a whopping 45 percent as against 26 percent in the National Capital Region. The strain in Mumbai is even worse given that NCR has twice the number of projects under construction as compared to Mumbai. Mumbai requires nearly nine quarters to clear its unsold inventory while Bangalore and NCR will take less than six and quarters respectively. The number of unsold flats is the highest ever when compared to the number of under-construction flats in the city, said Samanthak Das, Director Research at Knight Frank. In fact the total number of units launched during January to September 2013 in Mumbai has come down by 28% on year on year basis at 47,500 units, while the absorption of units during the same period has come down by 26%. "Residential market has been witnessing a steep decline in new launches as well as demand, resulting in the city experiencing a significant shrinkage.Unsold inventory pressure in Mumbai is the highest among all other cities and is depicting a growing trend," Das added. Here are the highlights of the report: 
1. The past two years have seen a 40 percent drop in residential launches compared with peak levels seen in 2010. Approximately 47,488 units were launched during the January-September this year, which is a 28 percent fall year on year and 42 percent and 46 percent when compared to 2011 and 2010, respectively. Clearly developers are keeping launches in check  in order to bridge the demand-supply gap. But despite the drop in...