HOUSING PRICES ON RISE

Housing prices have increased in 18 major cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, by up to 9.6 per cent during October-December 2012 over the previous quarter due to rise in input cost and limited fresh supply, National Housing Bank said today. Mumbai and Delhi witnessed the maximum increase in housing price at 9.6 per cent each. Out of 20 cities tracked by NHB 'RESIDEX', prices have dropped in only two cities -- Faridabad and Indore. "In majority of the cities prices are witnessing upward trend," NHB said in a statement. "The movement in prices of residential properties has shown increasing trend in 18 cities ranging from 0.6 per cent in Chennai to 9.6 per cent in Delhi & Mumbai, and fall in only two cities namely Indore (-1.0 per cent) and Faridabad (-5.1 per cent) in the quarter October-December 2012 in comparison to the previous quarter July-September 2012," it added. Prices have shot up by 9.4 per cent each in Kolkata and Patna, followed by Kochi (8.8 per cent), Surat (8.7 per cent), Bengaluru (8.2 per cent) and Lucknow (8 per cent). Hyderabad saw an appreciation in housing price by 7.1 per cent, while in Ludhiana rates rose by 6.5 per cent, Ahmedabad (6.1 per cent), Guwahati (5.1 per cent), Bhopal (4.9 per cent), Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur (2.4 per cent), Vijayawada (2.2 per cent), Pune (2 per cent) and Chennai (0.6 per cent). When contacted, NHB Chairman and Managing Director R V Verma said: "Prices have increased because of limited fresh supply and rise in input cost like labour, steel and cement". "New launches have been very limited in these cities and there is a high demand for existing inventory," he said, and expected a similar trend in the present quarter as builders are unlikely to cut prices. NHB RESIDEX tracks the movement in prices of residential properties on a quarterly basis since 2007. The index for Delhi includes property transactions of Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad.