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Housing sales rose by 23 per cent across the top seven cities in India in the first five months of 2021 to 1,32,818 units, according to a report released by PropEquity, a real estate data, research and analytics firm.

During the same period last year, a total of 1,08,199 units were sold, it said.

The report showed that majority of the sales happened till mid-April, just ahead of the resurgence in Covid-19 cases.

Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune are the cities where home sales witnessed a growth in the first five months of 2021 as against the first five months of 2020, with a growth of 16 per cent, 40 per cent, 39 per cent, 29 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively.

However, the National Capital Region and Kolkata remained the outliers and witnessed a downfall of 11 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, in home sales during the same period.

Sales in the NCR were greatly impacted as the national capital faced a major brunt of the second Covid wave during which the city came to a standstill to tackle the health emergency. This was followed by a stringent lockdown further impacting housing sales, the report noted.

The new supply or launches of housing units decreased by 24 per cent in the same period to 86,746 units from 1,13,699 units, as developers were clearing earlier stock, resizing home offerings and waiting for the economy to improve.

Chennai and NCR are the areas where new launches witnessed a growth in th first five months of 2021 versus the first five months of 2020 at 20 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.

Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, MMR and Pune witnessed a downfall of 35 per cent, 28 per cent, 28 per cent, 31 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.

"India witnessed the worst Covid wave in the months of April and May which drastically stopped almost all real estate activity across the major cities. Fortunately, the worst is behind us as new infections and Covid related deaths have fallen significantly, leading to major cities relaxing Covid related restrictions," said Samir Jasuja, Founder and Managing Director, PropEquity.