81% of Buyers Balk at 50% Price Surge

Skyrocketing home prices across cities have been a major pain point for Indian home seekers over the past few years - but there are notable exceptions, reveals the ANAROCK Consumer Sentiment Survey for H1 2025.

 "City-wise trends indicate that while residential property seekers across cities are extremely concerned about the rising prices in their respective cities, MMR has emerged as a surprising outlier," says Anuj Puri, Chairman - ANAROCK Group. "In India's most over-the-top expensive real estate market, just 39 percent of our respondent property seekers expressed high concern about the steep prices in the region. The remaining 61 percent have equally surprising takes – 20 percent are not at all concerned, and 41 percent only moderately so.”

MMR has near-matchless market fundamentals, long-term capital appreciation driven by lack of land, the highest annual inward migration in the country, and constant infrastructure upgrades. “However, such a high level of buyer confidence is still interesting in a region with the highest average housing prices across all Indian cities," says Puri.

Also Read: Bengaluru Home Buyers Hunts Outskirts for Affordability

Everywhere Else – A Major Concern

Nevertheless, the currently blowing global headwinds have left their mark, and several respondents admit that their homebuying decisions have been affected. The survey finds that rising home prices are a major concern for over 81 percent polled property seekers across India. This stands to reason - ANAROCK Research finds that the top 7 cities have seen average residential prices rise by over 50 percent in the last two years (from Rs. 6,001/sq.ft. in Q2 2023 to Rs. 8,990/sq.ft. by Q2 2025.

Affordable Housing

The survey further highlights that:

• 62 percent aspiring buyers of affordable housing are dissatisfied with the current available options in the market.
• 92 percent of these are unhappy with the project locations.
• 90 percent state that these projects are of low construction quality and are 'poorly designed'.
• 77 percent respondents find the unit sizes too small to be of utility and interest.

"These findings dovetail disturbingly with the documented demand contraction for affordable housing, or homes priced at or under Rs. 45 lakh," adds Anuj Puri. "According to ANAROCK data, it has shrunk to just 17 percent in H1 2025 from 40 percent back in same period in 2020. Concurrently, new supply of affordable housing has nosedived in the last two years across the top 7 cities – from 18 percent in H1 2023 to just 12 percent in H1 2025. Back in 2019, its supply share was 40 percent of the total new launches."

Also Read: Home Buyers Protest Shapoorji Pallonji Flat Delay in Bengaluru

Budget Preferences

 On this front, the H1 2025 survey represents a marked trend reversal over the H1 2024 survey: 

• Rs. 90 lakh to Rs. 1.5 Crore has emerged as the 'most favoured' option for over 36 percent of prospective homebuyers - indicating a stronger shift towards premium and luxury properties.
• 25 percent prefer homes priced between Rs. 45 lakh and Rs. 90 lakh.

Ready-to-move-in Vs. New Launches

The H1 2025 survey finds that demand for RTM homes is declining - and is, in fact, at the lowest end of the preference chart. As of H1 2025, the ratio of demand for ready homes against new launches stood at 16:29, against 20:25 in H1 2024. This is a complete trend reversal compared to H1 2020, when the demand ratio stood at 46:18, and H1 2021, when it was 32:21.

End-users Vs. Investors

The survey also highlights that more than 65 percent of the polled prospective buyers are entering the market as end-users, with investors appearing to be taking a measured pause. A deep dive into city trends indicates that among all cities, Bengaluru has the largest share (43 percent) of buyers seeking property specifically for investment; the remaining 57 percent are end-users. The survey indicates that Delhi-NCR has the lowest share of investors at 26 percent, with 74 percent seeking to buy as end-users.   

Other Major Highlights:

• 63 percent of respondents pick real estate as the 'most preferred' investment asset class - a 4 percent increase over the previous year’s survey
• 70 percent millennials & 46 percent Gen-X respondents intend to use their investment gains for purchasing a home soon