The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on the housing market in Chennai, with sales and new supply both failing to individually cross the 1,000 mark.
While only 490 new units were launched in the market during the April-June quarter of 2021, 709 homes were sold during the three-month period, shows a report titled ‘Real Insight (Residential) – April-June (Q2) 2021’, a quarterly analysis of India’s eight prime residential markets by online real estate company PropTiger.com.
In the second quarter, places like Porur, Siruseri, Tiruvallur, Pallikaranai and East Tambaram saw maximum new supply.
A majority of the new launches were concentrated in the less than ₹45 lakh price bracket, which accounted for 84% of the launches, showed the report. Of the total sales, 40% were concentrated in the ₹45 lakh to ₹75 lakh price bracket.
Homebuyers preferred areas like Pallikaranai, Pallavaram, Perumbakkam and Padur in Chennai south and Mogappair in Chennai west.
“While the impact remained largely the same on most markets, some were more vulnerable to the second wave of the pandemic because of being at the centrestage of activity. These markets will take longer to recover from the current shock,” said Mani Rangarajan, group chief operating officer of PropTiger.com.
Unsold inventory in Chennai, which stood at 37,478, saw a marginal increase of 3% year-on-year in Q2 2021 due to muted launches, coupled with stagnant sales velocity. It stood at 37,697 units in the first quarter of 2021.
According to the report, developers will take approximately 42 months to liquidate the current stock compared to 36 months in the same period the previous year.
