Mumbai real estate market up for major boost; India to grow by double digits in 2023: Hiranandani

Buoyed by major infrastructure developments and resurging demand for homes, the country’s residential real estate market is set for another year of healthy growth. And that would come on the back of a significant boost from the Mumbai market, said Niranjan Hiranandani, Founder & MD of real estate major Hiranandani Group.

Hiranandani, who also the position of National Vice President of industry body NAREDCO, expects the residential market to hold on to its growth momentum in 2023, after it grew by healthy double digits in 2022. “The demand for residential homes continue to remain robust inspire of interest rate hikes and price inflation. This, I think it would grow by over 10 per cent this year as well,” Hiranandani told Business Today in an interaction.

Last year, sales of residential properties touched the 2014 levels with 308,940 units sold during 2022, as per PropTiger. It was 50 per cent higher than the 205,900 units sold in 2021.

Steady rise in demand for homes boosted realtors’ confidence and egged them on to launch more projects. In 2022, new launches in the top seven cities jumped 42 per cent to over 402,000 units compared to 278,650 in 2021. It was also the highest number of launches in a year since the demonetisation, data from Anarock Research shows. It now estimates new launches to surge further, by 35 per cent to over 544,000 units in 2023.

“2022 was a watershed year for the Indian housing sector, with sales breaching the previous peak levels of 2014. In response to this high demand, developers remained focused on completing their previously launched projects,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman of Anarock Group.

According to Hiranandani, the real estate market in Mumbai - the largest in the country - is set for a major boom, which will further add to the overall surge. “There are major infrastructure projects like the metro, ongoing. As these projects complete over the next few years, new micro-markets will open up in and around Mumbai as commuting would become easier. That will boost real estate development further,” he said.

Currently, there are eight metro lines that are under construction in the Greater Mumbai region, which would bring new areas like Navi Mumbai closer to the city centre. The emergence of new micro-markets are already visible as new metro routes become operational. As per Knight Frank, bulk of the sales registrations in February were for properties in Western suburbs of Mumbai city constituting 57 per cent of the market share whereas bulk of the sales registrations in March was for properties in western suburbs constituting 62 per cent of the market share. The Metro Line 2A from Dahisar to DN Nagar and Line 7 from Dahisar to Gundavali, Andheri (E) in the western suburbs that were operational in the beginning of the year have enhanced connectivity, improved ease of travelling and reduced travel time by more than half.