Gurugram has the most unsold housing units in NCR, says realty report

Gurugram may have the least number of stuck housing projects in the national capital region (NCR), but the city has the highest share of unsold houses across the region, says a report released on Wednesday. Also, most of the unsold units in Gurugram belong to the premium or luxury category, says the report released by realty consultant Anarock.

According to the report, there were 1.82 lakh unsold housing units in the entire NCR in the second quarter of this calendar year and the city accounted for 56,550 units (31% share), the highest in the region.

Gurugram is followed closely by Greater Noida with 50,800 unsold units (28% share), Ghaziabad (17%), Noida (11%), Delhi (7%) and remaining 6% in Bhiwadi and Faridabad. The report says that the offtake in Greater Noida is higher than Gurugram as the former has more affordable houses.

It must be mentioned that a report released by the same firm last month had said that Gurugram had the least number of apartments that are stuck due to legal and financial issues.

The latest report says that the total value of unsold units in the city is Rs. 80,570 crore, whereas the value of unsold stock in Greater Noida is Rs. 26,720 crore.

Experts said that high difference in the value of unsold properties indicated that unsold stock in the city mostly belongs to the premium and high-end category whereas projects in Greater Noida were affordable in nature and had lower price. “Despite several technology based innovations being introduced in the real estate industry, confusion prevails regarding determination of demand and supply. The data is either not available or inadequate to make accurate forecast unlike practices in developed market,” Vinod Behl, a real estate analyst, said, adding that this was the reason that projects were launched and built without any regard for demand.

The Anarock data shows that in last two years, Gurugram has added 10% to its unsold stock as demand has not been adequate. In Q2 of 2017, Gurugram had nearly 51,220 unsold units that piled up to stand at 56,550 units in Q2 of 2019. The property prices also corrected by 1% in the city in last two years.

Noida, on the other hand, showed 23% reduction in unsold homes in the last two years. Likewise in Greater Noida, unsold inventory decreased by 26% between Q2 of 2017 and Q2 of 2019 — from 69,080 to 50,810 units.

“These are clear indicators that affordable markets are finding favour with buyers, which is in line with the fact that affordable housing is leading the pack across markets - most notably in NCR,” said Prashant Thakur, director and head (research), Anarock Property Consultants.

Commenting on the Anarock report, Gurugram-based developers said that reason for high unsold stock is that a large number of projects have been completed in last two years and made ready for possession. “The sale of properties has taken place, but almost an equal number of new projects available for sale has entered the market leading to the rise in unsold units,” said Kamaljeet Singh, vice-president, Bestech Ltd, a city-based developer.