Home sales fall four-year low of 2.28 lakh units sold last year as against 3.68 lakh houses in 2011

With a sluggish economic growth in the backdrop, home sales last year saw a steep decline thanks to the subdued consumer demand, some big changes in legislation concerned and rising level of unsold inventories dampening the overall sentiment. According to this report in Mint, the volume of total home sales came down to 7 percent on yearly basis at 2,28,072 units sold in last year. The number was four-year low in terms of volume sales. [caption id=“attachment_4298613” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] “Until the end of 2017, India’s residential sector had shrunk to a fraction of its size in less than a decade. Nevertheless, the near-standstill triggered by demonetisation seems to have tapered with time,” said Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director, Knight Frank. However, the decline in home sales did not halt there. The total volume sales took a massive hit as it dropped 38 percent, a seven-year low of 228,072 homes in 2017. This figure was much higher seven years ago when sales volumes were at 368,568. The report adds the volume dropped by around 7 percent in 2017 as compared to a year-ago period. Apart from that, new home launches witnessed a massive fall of 78 percent last year to 1,03,570 housing units from 4,80,424 in 2010. This means, new home launches crashed 41 percent in 2017 from the previous year, said the report. For full coverage of Union Budget 2018, click here .