HOUSING PRICES DOWN IN MAJOR CITIES

Housing prices in 22 major cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, are witnessing downward trend in April-June period compared to the previous quarter due to slowdown in demand, National Housing Bank said today. Property prices in majority of the cities, 22 out of 26 are witnessing marginal downward trend, quarterly update of NHB Residex said. The movement in prices of residential properties for the quarter has shown declining trend in majority of the cities, ranging from -0.45 per cent in Mumbai to -5.99 per cent in Ludhiana, it said. On the contrary, there was a price rise in four cities, 0.55 per cent in Dehradun and 3.07 per cent in Nagpur during the quarter April-June, 2013. In term of price decline, property prices in Indore declined by (-5.64 per cent), Vijaywada (-5.43 per cent), Hyderabad (-4.55 per cent), Kolkata (-4.06 per cent) and Guwahati (-3.92 per cent). Among others, residential property in Kochi declined by (-3.37 per cent), Patna (-3.29 per cent), Coimbatore (-3.26 per cent), Ahmedabad (-3.13 per cent), Faridabad (-2.42 per cent), Chennai (-2.26 per cent), Jaipur (-1.79 per cent), Delhi (-1.49 per cent), Bhopal (-1.30 per cent). NHB RESIDEX tracks the movement in prices of residential properties on a quarterly basis since 2007. The index for Delhi includes property transactions in Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. NHB RESIDEX has been expanded to include six new cities namely Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Meerut, Nagpur and Raipur from this quarter, it said.