NewsR Staff
The first quarter of the financial year 2020-21 saw near-negligible real estate transactions even as a bulk of transactions and sales in office and residential sectors took place pre-COVID.
In April, May and June, the real estate business was literally negligible, Knight Frank India’s half yearly report for 2020 said. The residential sales across eight top property markets fell by 54 percent in the first half of calendar year 2020, it said, adding that just 59,538 homes were sold between January and June as against 129,285 in the corresponding period of previous year.
Similarly, residential launches plummeted by 46 percent as 60,489 homes were launched as against last year’s 111,175.
In the office-space market, 17.2 million square feet worth of transactions could be completed between January and June across eight top property markets. Property consultant Knight Frank’s report underlined a 37 percent drop from last year’s 27.4 million square feet.
Similarly, a 27 percent drop has been registered in commercial real estate completions as 17.3 million square feet of commercial real estate was completed in the last six months as against 23.9 million square feet between January and June last year.
“With economic uncertainties creating significant headwinds, we expect the office space take-up to remain cautious,” said Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director, Knight Frank India, in a statement. Most occupiers are expected to hesitate in committing to expansion in the current market scenario and may delay the transaction, he added.
The impact of the pandemic and multiple lockdowns had come as a big blow especially when the sector saw a bumper year in 2019. A total of 60.6 million square feet worth of transactions took place across India last year while 61.3 million square feet of commercial real estate was completed during the period.
