Note ban pushes Ahmedabad housing market to 6-year-low

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Similarly, launches of new homes also declined to 1,200 housing units in October-December 2016, compared with 3,890 units during the corresponding period last year, according to the ‘India Real Estate: Residential and Office’ report released by global real-estate consultant Knight Frank in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

“Demonetisation has pushed back the housing market of Ahmedabad (one of the top 8 residential markets in the country) to “lowest levels that existed during the global financial crisis. In the last 6 years, this year has been the worst,” said Saurabh Mehrotra, national director at Knight Frank, while sharing the report. Depleted liquidity of developers and lack of buyers in the market have adversely impacted sales and new launches in the real-estate sector.

Since July 2015, Ahmedabad was witness to a recovery in home sales, growing at 13 percent year-on-year. This trend continued for the first 9 months of 2016 when the sale volumes saw an average growth of 10 percent.

“Subsequently, the Indian government’s demonetisation move on November 8 brought the market to a complete standstill. Developers refrained from announcing any new launches and buyers turned extremely cautious before committing on purchases,” the report stated.