MUMBAI: Kochi residential properties witnessed the highest rise in prices during the last quarter of 2017-18.
The official house price data released recently by RBI shows that Kochi has recorded the highest sequential growth in house price index (HPI) during the last quarter of the just- concluded financial year ending March 31, 2018.
The study was based on transactions data received from housing registration authorities in ten major cities – viz., Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kanpur and Kochi.
While the All-India HPI recorded a sequential increase of 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2017-18 over the previous quarter, Kochi recorded the highest rise of 11.2 per cent – a far cry from any other Indian cities, in sequential terms.
A close look at the HPI changes in other major cities underlines the relevance of the growth Kochi recorded on that measure. Delhi has recorded a decline of 3.4 per cent while Ahmedabad witnessed a marginal fall of 1.9 per cent in their last quarter HPI.
However, on a year-on-year basis, the all-India HPI recorded a growth of 6.7 per cent in the last quarter, 2017-18 as against 7.2 per cent in the previous quarter and 10.4 per cent a year ago.
In terms of annual growth rates too, large divergences can be observed in city-wise house price movements. Talking to businessbenchmark.news, Dr Najeeb Zackeria (seen in the picture), chairman and managing director of ABAD Builders, Kerala’s leading builder, said Kochi has a lot of pent-up demand for housing units and more importantly, Kochi has been growing as one of the most planned cities in the country.
Very few cities in India can today boast having airport, seaport and metro as part of the same city. Kochi is passing through an unprecedented pace of infrastructure growth activities with scores of flyovers are being built and with work on metro and inland waterways under way.
“In fact, the magnitude of infrastructure work taken up by Kochi is what has jacked up the prices of raw materials. This has negatively affected the real estate sector too with the cost of inputs such as sand, steel, cement etc. rising by about 25 per cent to 35 per cent in the past one year alone,” Dr Najeeb said.
He also said the GST hasn’t had any positive impact on the raw materials price. “The claims that the implementation of GST will bring down the price of inputs considerably remains a myth,” the ABAD chief added.
Despite the big price rise the Kochi real estate has witnessed, the prices of housing units in Kochi are still reasonable and affordable compared with many other cities. Residential apartments are still available in a price range of Rs4500 to Rs8500 per square foot.
