NHB RESIDEX – Quarterly Update January-March, 2012 (20 cities)

Press Release

NHB RESIDEX – RESIDENTIAL HOUSING PRICE INDEX

Quarterly Update January-March, 2012 (20 cities)

The last updation of NHB Residex for the quarter October-December 2011 covered 15 cities. From January 2012, NHB-Residex has been further expanded to cover 5 (Five) more cities viz. Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Ludhiana, Vijayawada, and Indore, taking the total number to 20. The first time NHB Residex in 2007 was for 5 cities.

This latest NHB RESIDEX for the quarter Jan-March 2012 thus covers 20 cities, including for the first time the above 5 new cities, whose price trends have also been tracked with base year as 2007.

The Residex for the quarter January-March 2012 constructed for 20 cities has taken into account the price trends for residential properties in different locations and zones in each city. Data on the transactions are collected from different/diverse sources and are classified, validated and applied to the model designed to give the representative Index for each city. The data are put through a Model that depicts the trend in the market. The Residex is expected to bring greater uniformity and standardisation as well as greater transparency in the valuation of properties across the industry.

The Index also helps the general consumers and property buyers and borrowers in their decision-making by enabling comparisons over time and across cities and localities based on the emerging trends. The Residex also provides insights into the property market for the lending agencies in their credit evaluation and assessment of the value (present and potential) of the security against the loan. NHB RESIDEX can be a useful indicator for estimating the value of property to be financed and also for assessing the value of security cover on the outstanding loan. Builders and developers may also benefit from the index by assessing the demand scenario in a locality, and mapping the housing needs in different parts of the country. NHB RESIDEX may be useful to policy makers, banks, housing finance companies, builders, developers, investors and individuals.

The movement in prices of residential properties has shown increasing trend in five cities and decline in ten cities covered under NHB RESIDEX during the quarter January-March, 2012 in comparison to the previous quarter. The Index for the quarter January-March 2012 has witnessed moderation/ stable property prices in majority of the cities over the previous quarter except in Jaipur and Hyderabad which have witnessed significant increases. Kochi, Bengaluru and Patna witnessed significant corrections.

Rising Trend: Residential housing prices in 5 cities have shown rise in prices in this quarter ended March 2012 (January-March 2012) over the previous quarter ended December, 2011 (October-December, 2011). Maximum increase was observed in Jaipur (25%) followed by Hyderabad (8.9%), Chennai (2.8%), Kolkata (0.5%) and Delhi (0.6%),

New 5 Cities: In case of new 5 cities now covered under the Residex from the period January-March, 2012, the prices of the residential properties in all the new cities have shown increasing trends in comparison to the prices in the Base Year 2007. The maximum increase was observed in Indore (108%) followed by Vijayawada (84%), Ludhiana (63%), Bhubaneswar (61%) and Guwahati (57%) in comparison to base year prices in 2007.

Declining Trend: 10 cities have shown decline in prices over the previous quarter with maximum decline observed in Kochi (-12.2%) followed by Bengaluru (-8%), Patna (-7.9%), Surat (-5.3%), Bhopal (-3.3%), Pune (-1.6%), Ahmedabad (-1.8%), Mumbai (1.6%), Lucknow (-0.6%) and Faridabad (-0.5%).