Want To Buy A House? Cough Up 7% More In These 43 Major Cities

In what would only add to the woes of the common man, housing prices have registered a steep hike of an average 7 per cent in 43 major cities and towns across the country in the quarter ending March this year. As cascading effect of this surge, the overall cost of living would certainly go up as it would push up the rentals in particular.

According to the statistics released by the National Housing Bank (NHP), a regulatory body of housing loan servicing companies, a total of 50 cities have been enlisted under it. According to data from banks and home loan servicing agencies, overall house price volatility across these cities recorded during the quarter was 5.8 per cent as against 5.3 per cent during the same period in 2022.

Compared to the corresponding period last year, Kolkata led the uptrend with 11 per cent house price volatility, followed by Ahmedabad with 10.8 per cent. It was 9.4 per cent in Bangalore, 8.2 per cent in Pune, 7.9 per cent in Hyderabad, 6.8 per cent in Chennai, 3.1 per cent in Mumbai and 1.7 per cent in Delhi, the figures suggest.

However, bringing a little relief, house prices in 7 cities saw a downward trend. Also, overall house prices remained affordable as home loan rates were lower than pre-pandemic era during the review quarter, as per the Housing Price Index (HPI) released by NHP.

Delhi, Navi Mumbai, Kochi, Coimbatore, Raipur, Faridabad and Bidhan Nagar and New Town in Kolkata recorded a sequential (QoQ) decline in prices during the quarter, with Raipur recording the maximum decline of 6.7 per cent due to projects launched by its civic body RMC for the EWS and LIG categories.

The annual change in prices varied widely across the cities, ranging from a jump of 19.6 percent in Gandhinagar to a slump of 12.9 percent in Ludhiana. On a sequential basis, the 50-city index registered an expansion of 1.3 per cent in January-March 2023 as against 1.5 per cent in the previous quarter.

The prices of underconstruction and unsold ready-to-move-in properties also recorded an annual price increase of 11.7 per cent in the March quarter, as against 4.8 per cent a year ago.