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Sale of housing units rose by 21 per cent across top seven cities in India in the first quarter of 2021 to 1,05,183 units against 87,236 units in Q1 2020, according to a PropEquity report.

However, the new supply or launches of housing units decreased by 40 per cent in the same period to 59,737 units in Q1 2020 as against 1,00,343 units.

Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, MMR, NCR, and Pune are the cities where home sales witnessed a growth in Q1 2021 versus Q1 2020 at 13 per cent, 29 per cent, 16 per cent, 26 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.

Only Kolkata witnessed downfall of 20 per cent in home sales during the same period.

"Beginning of Q1 was relatively better for Indian realty as compared to last year and there was higher demand in ready to move in units and the projects nearing completion. However, the second wave of Covid will lead to muted demand going forward and we expect sales to pick up post second wave of Covid ending which should be around Q3 or Q4 onwards," Founder and Managing Director Samir Jasuja said.

India's IT capital, Bengaluru saw a rise of 13 per cent in home sales in Q1 2021 at 12,263, but new launches decreased by 40 per cent at 8,492 units. Chennai saw a 29 per cent increase in home sales in Q1 2021 and new launches decreased by 8 per cent to 4,044 units.

Kolkata saw an increase of 26 per cent in home sales in the first quarter at 41,323 units, whereas new launches fell by 48 per cent to 20,269 units.

Only NCR witnessed an increase in both home sales and new launches by 6 per cent and 136 per cent respectively in Q1 2021.

Ambience Group President (Sales & Marketing) Ankush Kaul said: "The current Covid wave has hit the sector when Indian real estate housing demand was on the growth trajectory in Q1 of 2021."

"We believe the current state of lockdown is short-lived and the execution of the ongoing projects would not be impacted much in terms of delivery timelines. Our two under completion projects in Gurgaon and Noida were witnessing steady demand in Q1 and we believe once the current Covid spread in India is stabilised, the end user demand will again witness growth," he said.