Housing sales dip 2% but office leasing jumps 41% in H1 2025: Knight Frank

Business Standard

5 days ago

India's top eight property markets saw a 2 per cent decline in housing sales during the January-June period, but office space leasing rose 41 per cent, according to Knight Frank.
In a webinar on Thursday, real estate consultant Knight Frank released its data for the Indian real estate market for January-June 2025.
The data showed that housing sales fell 2 per cent annually to 1,70,201 units during the first six months of this calendar year across eight major cities.
In contrast, the leasing of office spaces rose 41 per cent to 48.9 million (489 lakh) square feet area during January-June 2025.
The gross leasing stood at a record 71.9 million square feet for the entire 2024.
Considering the strong performance during the first half, the consultant expects the leasing number to scale a new high of 80-90 million square feet in the full current year.
In the residential segment, the consultant noted that the weighted average price across eight cities rose in a range of 2 per cent to 14 per cent.
During the first half of this year, Knight Frank data suggested that 49 per cent of all housing sales were for homes costing ₹1 crore and above, while 51 per cent were in the category of up to ₹1 crore.
Among cities, housing sales in Mumbai and Ahmedabad remained flat at 47,035 units and 9,370 units, respectively, during January-June compared to the year-ago period.
Housing sales rose in Hyderabad by 3 per cent to 19,048 units.
Chennai too saw an increase of 12 per cent in sales to 8,935 units.
However, in Delhi-NCR, sales fell 8 per cent to 26,795 units.
Housing sales in Bengaluru dipped 3 per cent to 26,599 units, while sales in Pune decreased 1 per cent to 24,329 units.
Kolkata saw an 11 per cent fall in sales to 8,090 units during the January-June period.
"The residential market in H1 2025 reflected a nuanced shift where premium and luxury segments continued to thrive, even as lower value segments showed signs of continued moderation, Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director of Knight Frank India, said.
On the office market, the consultant highlighted that Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Pune and Kolkata achieved record office leasing during the January-June period of this year on strong demand from Indian and foreign companies.
The gross leasing in Bengaluru more than doubled to 18.2 million square feet during January-June.
In Delhi-NCR, leasing rose 27.5 per cent to 7.2 million square feet.
Hyderabad witnessed a 16 per cent growth in office leasing to 5.9 million square feet, while Chennai saw an increase of 68 per cent to 5.1 million square feet.
In Mumbai, the leasing of office space fell 5 per cent to 5.5 million square feet.
The gross leasing of office space in Pune grew 17 per cent to 5.1 million square feet during the said period.
In Kolkata, the absorption of office space rose 60 per cent to 1.1 million square feet.
However, the office leasing fell 51 per cent in Ahmedabad to 0.8 million square feet during the January-June period.
"This performance is a testament to India's resilient economic fundamentals and its growing prominence as a global business hub," Baijal said.
The sustained demand for high-quality office spaces, owing to occupiers' confidence, has propelled transaction volumes to historic highs, he added.
"As we move forward, India's strategic appeal and innovative spirit will continue to position it as a global leader in the office market," Baijal said.