India's top eight cities saw 21% surge in home sales in last quarter

Even though India’s real estate industry went through a deep slump post demonetisation, looks like the effects have started to wear off, at least in the top eight cities of the country.

As per data from Liases Foras Real Estate Rating & Research, a well-known housing and real estate data agency, primary residential sales across these cities rose 21% in the first quarter of 2017, selling about 61,214 units, up from 50,788 units in the previous quarter.

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The leading cities in this road to recovery were Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, with respective growth rates of 47%, 43%, and 30%.

However, the year-on-year growth was still 5% lower, primarily because of weak market in Chennai and Bengaluru, with sales falling 44% and 35%, respectively.

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Talking of Delhi NCR, the region contributed the most with sales of 14,983 units, after which Mumbai Metropolitan Region ranked second with 14,505 units, registering respective growth rates of 24.5% and 23.6%.

"The impact of demonetisation was transitory as it did result in subdued disbursement growth, particularly in the third quarter and part of the fourth quarter of the financial year under review. But by the end of the financial year, the individual disbursement growth trajectory began normalising," said Keki Mistry, CEO of HDFC.

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He added that even though the market has just bounced back to normal, this is be the best time to buy residential properties because of lower interest rates, declining property prices in some cities and government incentives.