Spurt in demand for affordable housing pushes up overall residential sales by 4% : Shishir Baijal MD Knight Frank

Ambar Bhattacharya, abptakmaa, Kolkata, 11th July 2019 : Knight Frank India launched the 11th edition of its flagship half yearly report-India Real Estate. The report presented a comprehensive analysis of the residential and office market performance accross eight cities for the period January to June 2019. The report findings established that office space market experienced decadal high volume in supply and transactions in H1 2019. Office supply increased by 31% year on year to 2.2 mnsq m (23.9 mnsqft) in the current analysis period, the highest level achieved in this decade. While transacyions were recorded at 2.6 mn sq m (27.4 mn sq ft) higher by 26% YOY in H1 2019. Co-working space providers have taken up approximately 0.37 nmsq m (4.0 mnsqft) of office space during H1 2019, a growth over H1 2018. Residential unit launches in H1 2019 increased by 21% year on year to 0.11 mnunits while sales grew by a steady 4% YOY to 0.13 mn units. The residential market witnessed growth in supply as well as sales for the third consecutive half year period, both hitting their highest level since demonetisation during H2 2016. Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director said, Double digit rental growth in five out of eight markets reiterates the underlying strength of Indian office market. The spurt in demand for higher end roles in the artificial intelligence and data security domains have led to a welcome and significant 59% YOY increase in demand from the IT/ITeS sector during H1 2019. Co-working continues to drive transaction volumes and influence occupier demand. He also mentioned that the union budget has opened the market of realty industry and they are hoping for a good business in Kolkata. They will be coming up with many more new projects. Publicity : Tag Communis.