Mumbai city’s real estate in the year 2020 saw some major ups and down. The year started with a promising January with high sales, but then Corona hit and things derailed only to make real estate history.
By Varun Singh
When I say Mumbai Real Estate will bid adieu to 2020 with a smile, I am not totally wrong. And I am going to drive my point with facts and figures,
The year 2020 started for Mumbai Real Estate with a promising January month which saw 6,150 sales being registered. This was almost 2,000 more sales than January 2019.
Even February continued the trend of registering high sales, where the figure touched 5,927 sales, against more than February 2019.
However, things started looking bad, when March came in, it was then when Coronavirus led pandemic hit the nation and the city entered its first ever lockdown.
Mumbai as a city which never slept, was forced to undergo a lockdown, everything came to a standstill.
But it was March, which gave Mumbai its biggest realty deal of the year 2020. Industrialist Neeraj Kochhar spent Rs 136 crore to buy several floors in Indiabulls Blu in Lower Parel.
The Kochhar’s in the month of March bought apartments, on the 46, 47, 48 and 49th level of Indiabulls Blu.
Also Read: Exclusive: Biggest realty deal of 2020 inked for Rs 136 Crore
Even the sales figures were decent for March but were half of that of January. In March only 3,798 sales were registered.
Then came April 2020, the month which can be registered as the blackest month of real estate industry for several reasons.
Firstly not a single sale took place in this month. The entire country was in lockdown. Mumbai for the first time in its history witnessed reverse migration at such large scale.
The migrant labourers who drove Mumbai’s realty industry were walking back to their native places.
Reverse migration became the biggest challenge to tackle for realty players. The going was becoming difficult. Developers were having a tough time to convince the work force to not leave.
A developer from South Mumbai told me, that he would every morning get tea prepared at his home, and visit the site and personally serve it to the labourers. He also provided them with ration and other requirements.
But not many developers could do this and they saw their sites becoming bereft of laourers and work lagging behind.
Also Read: Reverse migration a challenge in post COVID India
Not only this the other major challenge was how to conduct sales, the developers across were worried on how will they show flats to prospective homebuyers with the social distancing norms.
Many developers adopted digital mode, they started showing flats via videos that would reach homebuyers on their WhatsApp and other mediums.
This worked for many at least this is what many developers claimed. One more thing, it was April, May and June these three months saw a lot of developers holding a lot of digital meetings or webinars.
Every developer was visible every alternate day via a webinar with ministers and bureaucrats.
Also Read: Housing sales resume digitally in times of Covid 19
In May the sales started to happen, they were negligent 207 compared to even March, but yes a 207% rise when compared to April where literally no sales took place.
In June, Mumbai real estate started looking upwards, the sales figure was 1,839 and this month saw two big realty deals too.
First one was Pratik Agarwal MD of a Power Firm had shelled out Rs 1.12 lakh per square feet to buy a sprawling duplex in Worli’s Samudra Mahal.
Second one was Romesh Sobti buying flats worth Rs 76 crore in Worli’s Three Sixty West.
Also Read: Slowdown? He paid Rs 76 crore for two flats in Worli
While experts claimed that the deals were carried out earlier but were only registered in 2020.
Things were looking upwards, when in July businessman Anurang Jain bought a flat for Rs 1.56 lakh per square feet in Carmichael Residencies.
In the same month of July another businessman bought an apartment for Rs 1.30 lakh per square feet in Bandra.
July also witnessed a group deal of 35 flats in Parel’s One Avighna for Rs 200 crore, which caused a storm in Mumbai real estate industry.
Also Read: Group deal of 35 flats for Rs 200 crore in Parel?
July also saw a rise in number of registrations, a total of 2,662 sales were registered in the city.
Then came August, the first big news from the realty industry caused a lot of uproar. It was for the first time, a developer admitted of selling his property in want of liquidity. He even sold it for less than the ready reckoner rates.
Also Read: Builder Sells SoBO Flat At Less, For Want Of Liquidity
Then in the same month, one of India’s top firm sold a Worli flat in August, for Rs 6.14 crore. The firm had bought the flat just 9 months ago for Rs 9.60 crore.
Read here for more details on this story:Top Firm Sells Worli Flat For Rs 6.14 Cr That It Bought For Rs 9.6 Cr Only 9 Months Ago
However, with so many downs August also saw the biggest announcement of the year.
The state government on August 26, announced a stamp duty rate cut in the entire state. From September 1 to December 31, the rates were slashed by 3%. The rates have been reduced by 2% between January 1 to March 31 (2021).
In August, the 2,642 sales were registered in the city of Mumbai, which was less than that of July, mostly because everyone held on to their registrations to take the benefit of stamp duty cut.
September started with a bang, the stamp duty cut had come in place and it was for the first time that many developers announced that they would even pay the stamp duty for the homebuyers.
Also Read: Buying A House Builder Will Pay Your Stamp Duty
In September a total of 5,597 sales took place, this was the highest figure after the lockdown was imposed in the country,
Actually it was more than the 4,032 sales that took place in September 2019 in Mumbai. The figure was expected to go high in September 2020, but the Sraddh period impacted the sales.
Builders came up with discounts in October, the festival period had literally begun and real estate was driving with 1,000 horsepower speed.
In October, while at one hand we had Hrithik Roshan spending close to Rs 100 crore to buy an apartment in Versova.
At the same time, sales figure crossed 7,929 mark, highest since January 2020. Now the webinars were gone and real sales were taking place on the ground level. Builders were readily giving discounts and sales had picked up.
Then came November, which saw several top realty deal taking place, while Keki Mistry bought a flat in Worli, even Aditya Purim’s family spent Rs 50 crore to buy another apartment in Malabar Hill.
November 2020 became the first month to create history with 9,301 sales being registered in a month.
Then came December 2020, this month will remain as the most memorable month for Mumbai real estate industry.
There are many reasons for the same, firstly it broke all records, as of now, when I write this piece, Mumbai sales figure has already crossed 18,000 mark.
Secondly this month saw several big ticket deals. While Motilal Oswal Family trust spent Rs 101 crore to buy several duplexes in Peddar Road.
December also witnessed India’s most expensive deal, where Pharma giants the Daftarys’ spent Rs 1.58 lakh per square feet to buy apartments in Carmichael Residencies.
Also Read: This Is 2020’s Most Expensive Realty Deal
By the end of 2020, it is expected that December will have broken all records not only in terms of sales but also in revenue generation for the state government.
There’s a rush to register the apartments before the new year because the stamp duty rates will go up by 1%.
In all if you see, the real estate industry in Mumbai witnessed a lot of ups compared to downs in the year 2020. There’s no reason for the industry to not bid adieu to 2020 with a smile.
With all this, there’s also a concern whether the momentum will continue in the new year? Will people continue buying as stamp duty will go up to 3% but it would still be less than what it was in August 2020.
2020 is just a day away, we all will soon see what the new year has for us and the industry.
