With the recovery in demand owing to low home loan interest rates and stamp duty cut by the Maharashtra government, housing sales are estimated to rise 29 per cent year-on-year during January-March at 58,290 units across seven major cities, says property consultant Anarock.

Anarock said 58,290 homes are estimated to be sold in the top seven cities in Q1 2021 in comparison to 45,200 units in Q1 2020.

Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune together accounted for 53 per cent of housing sales in the quarter, it added.

"Demand boosters like stamp duty cuts, further reductions in home loan rates by most banks (to 6.70 per cent), and ongoing developer discounts and offers helped the residential sector stage a convincing comeback in Q1 2021," Anarock Chairman Anuj Puri said.

MMR and Pune have been the most active in this quarter since the limited-period stamp duty cuts and other sops and discounts substantially reduced acquisition cost, he said.

"MMR's homebuyers have responded proactively to the bottomed-out property prices in the country's most expensive real estate market. This is adequately vouchsafed by the significant rise in property registrations in Mumbai in the first two months of the year," Puri said.

Housing sales in MMR may rise by 46 per cent to 20,350 units in January-March 2021 from 13,910 units in the year-ago period.

Pune, too, is expected to see 47 per cent increase in sales to 10,550 units from 7,200 units.

According to the data, Hyderabad recorded the maximum rise in sales in this quarter among the top cities. Housing sales are likely to increase by 64 per cent to 4,400 units in Q1 2021 from 2,680 units in Q1 2020

In Chennai, 2,850 units are estimated to be sold, an increase of 30 per cent from 2,190 units in Q1 of 2020 calendar year.

Housing sales in Kolkata could rise by 10 per cent to 2,680 units from 2,440 units, while the Delhi-NCR might see 8 per cent growth in demand to 8,790 units from 8,150 units.

In Bangalore, sales are expected to rise marginally to 8,670 units from 8,630 units in Q1 2020.

Unsold inventory in the top seven cities saw a nominal yearly decline – from 6.44 lakh units towards Q1 2020-end to approximately 6.42 lakh units by Q1 2021-end, Anarock said.

Average property prices in the top seven cities saw some movement in Q1 2021, with most cities recording a rise of 1-2 per cent over Q1 2020 - except Kolkata where prices remained stagnant, it added.