If anyone had doubts about Chennai being a boom city, the National Housing Bank's Residex index, which has been tracking housing prices in different parts of the country since 2007, puts them to rest. The index for the city leapt up by 39.5 per cent in the last quarter [January to March 2012] of 2011-12 compared to the same period last year [January to March 2011]. This is the highest jump for any city for the period.
In Bengaluru, in contrast, the index for the same period has gone up by just 4.5 per cent, while in Hyderabad the growth has been even slower at 3.6 per cent. In Kochi, the only other city in south India to be tracked, the growth has been negative: minus 16 per cent, the lowest for any of the 15 cities which are being monitored across the country on a regular basis.
Delhi clocked a robust 32.5 per cent growth, the second best, followed by Pune [22.3 per cent], Bhopal [22.15] per cent, Jaipur [19.4 per cent] and Surat [12.4 per cent].
Mumbai registered a growth of 8.6 per cent and Kolkata had a slump, with the index registering a negative return of minus 9.5 per cent.
Lucknow recorded a growth of 4.5 per cent, while Patna had a slump, registering a negative growth of minus 13.4 per cent. In Ahmedabad, the index has fallen marginally at minus 0.6 per cent.
Releasing the latest data for January-March 2012 quarter, the National Housing Bank said from January 2012, NHB-Residex has been expanded to cover Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Ludhiana, Vijayawada, and Indore, taking the total number to 20. Interestingly, all the five cities have shown a robust growth in price over the past five years. In Indore, the prices have more than doubled – from the base of 100 in 2007 to 208 during January-March 2012, while it has increased by 84 per cent in Vijayawada, 63 per cent in Ludhiana, 61 per cent in Bhubaneswar and 57 per cent in Guwahati.
In contrast, only nine out the 15 cities crossed the 50 per cent mark during the five-year period: Chennai [204 per cent], Faridabad, on the outskirts of Delhi [117 per cent], Bhopal [104 per cent], Kolkata [91 per cent], Mumbai [90 per cent], Pune [81 per cent], Delhi [68 per cent] and Ahmedabad and Lucknow [64 per cent each].
Of the rest, Surat and Patna had a positive growth of 44 per cent and 29 per cent respectively, Bengaluru had a negative return of minus 8 per cent, Hyderabad minus 14 per cent, Jaipur minus 20 per cent, and Kochi minus 28 per cent.
