Festive season 2024: Mumbai real estate market reports 10% drop in property registrations during Ganesh festival

The Mumbai real estate market reported a 10% drop in total number of property registrations and touched 3,400 during Ganesh festival 2024 compared to 3,700 during Ganesh festival 2023, according to Maharashtra IGR data collated by Knight Frank India, a real estate consultancy firm.

Ganesh festival marks the start of festive season in Mumbai. During Ganesh festival 2023, between September 19 to September 28, there were seven working days in which 3,782 properties were registered. The daily average of registrations in 2023, 540 property registrations.

In comparison to this, during Ganesh festival 2024, between September 7 to 17, having seven working days, 3,405 properties were registered in Mumbai real estate market- a fall of 10%, according to the Knight Frank India data.

Why are property registrations down in Mumbai?

According to Knight Frank India, housing demand in Mumbai remains strong, and 2024 is on course to record a multi- year high for property sales registration.

Also Read: Mumbai records 11,735 property registrations in August 2024; stamp duty collections hit ₹1072 crore

"While it is too early to interpret market trends of a few days or weeks, high base effect and slow growth in some high frequency macroeconomic indicators have hinted at moderation in economic activities. Although the fundamental factors supporting the housing demand remain strong, a likely policy repo rate cut, and the upcoming festive season are expected to maintain the housing sales momentum, said Vivek Rathi, National Director- Research, Knight Frank India.

Data released by real estate data analytics firm Propequity had pointed out that, on a Y-o-Y basis in Q3FY24, the total absorption (sales) rose only in Delhi NCR (22%) and Navi Mumbai (4%).

In other seven cities fall was reported with Hyderabad recording the highest fall at 42%, followed by Bengaluru (26%), Kolkata (23%), Pune (19%), Chennai (18%), Mumbai (17%) and Thane (10%).

Also Read: Pune’s property registrations up by 3% YoY, 26% decline in the last four months

"The demand for real estate continues to be robust as even in this quarter the absorption/sales is higher than the new launches and such marginal drops in this quarter is a historic trend and not symptomatic of any adverse situation," Samir Jasuja, CEO and founder, PropEquity had said on September 20.

Developers on the other hand maintain that projects that are ready to move in or nearing possession do have better sales compared to other projects.

According to Rajendra Sharma, Chairman and MD at Ambit Realtors and Developers, there might be a case where the festive season this year is muted compared to last year.

"But in our case, the sales for our project named Ambit Vista in Santacruz near Mumbai airport has been better during Ganesh festival 2024 compared to last year. The reason for this is our project's construction is in full swing and heading towards completion," Mr Sharma said.

"So, we can say that projects that are nearing possession will be in a more comfortable position than those which have just started construction if at all sales slow down. However, we see strong demand in western suburbs of Mumbai and are going to launch two projects in Kandivali west and Malad west area in the range of ₹2 crore to ₹4 crore, which sells the fastest comparatively," Sharma added.

Also Read: Housing sales expected to decline by 18% in July-September annually across nine cities: PropEquity

Buy now, pay later scheme to remain during the festive season?

Despite real estate experts and developers stating that there is no significant fall in sales, buy now, pay later festive offers or also known as flexi payment schemes are actively being offered by real estate developers to homebuyers.

Flexi payment plan allows potential homebuyers to pay in instalments. Homebuyers pay only 10% or 20% initially, and the rest on possession.

A few developers in the Mumbai real estate market have even gone to the extent of allowing homebuyers to move into the apartment after depositing 20% of the cost of the apartment. The balance 80% will be paid in equal instalments from the date of getting possession.