New Delhi: Sales of affordable homes priced up to Rs 60 lakh declined 4 per cent to 61,121 units in eight major cities during January-March this year due to lower supply and higher demand for luxury apartments, according to PropEquity.

The top eight cities are - Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Real estate data analytical firm PropEquity data showed that sales of homes costing up to Rs 60 lakh stood at 6,3787 units in the January-March period of the last calendar year.

Lower supply of affordable homes is one of the major factors for this slight decline in sales.

According to PropEquity data, the fresh supply of homes priced up to Rs 60 lakh in these top eight cities declined to 33,420 units during January-March 2024 from 53,818 units in the year-ago period.Builders are focusing more on launching luxury apartments to take advantage of the surge in demand for premium residential properties. Profit margins are also higher in luxury projects.

According to the data, housing sales in this price range declined to 2,35,340 units in the 2023 calendar year from 2,51,198 units in the previous year.

In 2019, sales of homes priced up to Rs 60 lakh stood at 2,26,414 units.

During the 2020 calendar year, which saw the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, sales in this price category fell to 1,88,233 units.However, sales are expected to bounce back in 2021 and 2022 to 2,17,274 units and 2,51,198 units respectively.

Sales declined again to 2,35,340 units in 2023 compared to the previous year.

According to PropEquity data, sales of homes priced up to Rs 60 lakh in MMR rose to 28,826 units during January-March this year from 23,401 units in the year-ago period.

Sales in Pune fell to 12,299 units from 14,532 units.

Sales in Ahmedabad declined to 6,892 units from 8,087 units.Sales in Hyderabad declined to 3,360 units from 3,674 units, while sales in Chennai declined to 2,003 units from 3,295 units.

Sales in Bengaluru declined from 5,193 units to 2,801 units.

Sales in Kolkata increased to 3,741 units from 2,831 units.

Sales of homes priced up to Rs 60 lakh per unit in Delhi-NCR declined to 1,199 units in January-March this year from 2,774 units in the year-ago period.

Stock exchange-listed PE Analytics Ltd, which runs the PropEquity platform, reported a 37 per cent rise in total income to Rs 44.17 crore in the last financial year from Rs 32.3 crore in 2022-23.

PropEquity is an online provider of analytics, data and deal flow covering the Indian real estate industry.The company tracks over 1,73,000 projects from 57,500 developers across 44 cities in India on a real-time basis.