Residential Market Remains Robust

The Mumbai residential market maintains its buoyancy in terms of demand and sales, despite unfavourable factors like rise in interest rates, higher stamp duty etc.

Mumbai city (area under BMC jurisdiction) saw property sales registration of 9,542 units in May 2023, resulting in INR 811 Crores of revenue for the state exchequer, an increase of 12% YoY. Of the total properties registered, 84% were residential while 16% were non-residential properties. The growth in revenues was on account of increased stamp duty rate and surge in higher-value property transactions.

Mumbai property sale registrations and government revenue collection

The daily average property registration in May 2023 was 308 units, making it the second-best month of May in the last ten years after May 2022. Total registrations, however, dipped in May 2023 by 3% YoY with a total of 9,542 property registrations in the month. While overall registrations dipped in May 2023, the strength in daily sale rate with over 308 units registered per day and rising revenues clearly reiterated the robustness of Mumbai property market. 

According to Shishir Baijal, Chairman & Managing Director, Knight Frank India, the Mumbai residential market maintains its growth momentum with more than 300 properties being registered daily indicating that the demand, especially for residential, continues despite the change in stamp duty, rise in interest rates and other impediments. Further, if we analyse, this demand, buyers are willing to pay a significantly higher price towards homes in the last one year due to these changes as compared to September 2020, when stamp duty rebates were introduced, which can be dubbed as a turning point for residential markets in Mumbai. Since then, we have seen the demand remain steady with spikes due to interventions like withdrawal of stamp duty rebate in March 2021 or introduction of 1% cess on stamp duty. We expect demand to remain robust, factors influencing buying decisions, especially home loan rates, are expected to remain steady as consumer inflation is fast coming down.

In May 2023, apartments measuring 500 square feet (sq.ft.) to 1,000 sq.ft. continued to be purchasers’ preference, accounting for 41% of all apartments. Share of sale of apartments with less than 500 sq.ft. remained stable at 35% in May 2023. The share take – up for areas larger than 1,000 sq. ft. increased from 18% in May 2022 to 24% in May 2023.

 Area wise breakup of apartment sales

 The share of registrations of properties worth INR 2.5 Cr and below stood at 85% in May 2023, inline compared to same period last year, while the share of properties worth INR 2.5 Cr and above accounted for 14% of all registered houses compared to 15% in May 2022.

 Ticket size wise split of property sale registrations

The majority of the properties registered in the month of May 2023 were located in western suburbs constituting 58% of the market share, while 26% of registrations were for properties in central suburbs., 6% of registrations were for Central Mumbai, while South Mumbai’s share of total property registrations stood at 10%.

The two markets of central and westerns suburbs have in recent months seen large volumes of launches as a response to the robust demand. These locations provide great value as most of the new developments here provide for modern living amenities. Further, these locations are either already or are soon to be connected via the metro network which is further boosting the profiles for these properties.

 Micro market wise breakup

The central suburb and western suburb have the highest percentage of property registrations under INR 5 Cr. However, most transactions exceeding INR 5 Cr were registered in Central and South Mumbai with three big transactions of over INR 20 Cr recorded in Central Mumbai and South Mumbai.

 Micro-Market and Ticket size wise breakup of apartment sales

Consumers continued to favour buying residential property in their local micro market . The central and western suburbs have demonstrated a significant propensity for buyers to upgrade to homes in their own micro market. 91% of buyers from western and 94% of purchasers from central suburbs chose to buy in their existing micro market as familiarity of the location is a key consideration for end users along with the availability of products suited to their price and product requirements.

Approximately 5% of all western suburbs house purchasers have moved to central suburbs, while 4% of central suburbs home buyers have moved to western suburbs. Homebuyers from the most desirable micro markets, including Central and South Mumbai, have a relatively lower inclination to buy in the same market. A home was bought in the same micro market by 55% of home buyers from Central Mumbai and 64% of home buyers from South Mumbai.

Residential properties in the western and central suburbs have drawn the most interest from purchasers outside of the city.

 Preferred location of Property purchase

All Data Source : Maharashtra Govt- Dept. of Registrations and Stamps (IGR); Knight Frank India Research

The age group of 31 and 45 made up the biggest percentage of home buyers, accounting for 44% of all residential property registrations. 10% of house purchasers are under 30 years old, while 33% of buyers are in the 46 to 60 age range. The share of home buyers who were over 60 years old stood at 13%.