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The share of the luxury housing segment in the total sale of residential units in the top cities of the country has gone up, as per a report.

As per realty consultancy ANAROCK Research, out of the total 3.65 lakh units sold across the top seven cities in 2022, 18 per cent (approx 65,680 units) were in the luxury category priced more than Rs 1.5 crore.

Contrastingly, of the total 2.61 lakh units sold in entire 2019, just 7 per cent (approx 17,740 units) were in the luxury category.

The MMR, NCR, and Hyderabad have led luxury homes sales in 2022 with nearly 50,100 units sold in these three cities altogether. In 2019, together they saw sales of mere 14,050 luxury homes in the entire year.

Data further revealed that in terms of overall sales share, MMR's luxury housing sales share increased from 13 per cent of 80,870 units in 2019 to nearly 30 per cent of approx 1.10 lakh units in 2022.

In NCR, the sales share rose to 15 per cent of approx. 63,710 units in 2022, from 4 per cent of total 46,920 units sold in 2019.

In Hyderabad, it increased to 16 per cent (of total 47,490 units sold) in 2022 from 10 per cent of 16,590 units sold in 2019.

As per Inspector General of Registration, Maharashtra, India's most expensive city - Mumbai - saw revenue collections from property registrations touch a new high in February 2023 at Rs 1,102 crore. This was a whopping 79 per cent jump against February 2022 collections when it stood at Rs 615 crore.

ANAROCK Group Chairman Anuj Puri said: "Interestingly, even while revenue collections went up significantly in the period in Mumbai, the total number of property registrations saw a drop of 8 per cent in the year - from 10,379 total registrations in February 2022 to nearly 9,511 registrations in February 2023. This clearly indicates that the sale of big-ticket price homes (i.e. luxury homes) saw significant movement."

"If we deep-dive into data further, February 2023 has seen the highest revenue collection in Mumbai in the last five years during the same month. Also, in the entire FY 2023, we saw February to record the maximum revenue collections," he added.

One major factor for high sales of big-ticket price homes in Mumbai and other top cities could be the government's recent move in the Union Budget 2023-24 to cap capital gains at Rs 10 crore. This new move will come into effect from April 2023. Thus, to save tax on capital gains, the HNIs (High networth individuals) across top cities including Mumbai are rushing in close luxury housing deals before the financial year ends in March.

Under this new move, if one sells a house/other assets including equities and his/her gains are more than Rs 10 crore, then maximum benefit that can be availed is only up to Rs 10 crore when invested into another property. Capital gains of over Re 10 crore will henceforth be taxed from April 2023.

Previously, to save on tax from their capital gains, HNIs/ultra-HNIs would mostly re-invest into ultra-luxury property. Thus, the new move could be a deterrent for luxury housing sales to an extent once the new provision comes into effect. However, to say that it will have a major impact on this segment will remain to be seen.