Housing sales across the leading eight cities surged 51% in 2021, even as the office market continued to decline due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with gross leasing observing a 3% drop, as per Knight Frank India. Residential sales rose to 2,32,903 units in 2021, from 1,54,534 homes in 2020, but demand dropped 5% from the 2019 pre-pandemic levels and 37% lower than the 2011 peak numbers. In the office segment, the gross leasing of office space dropped to 38.1 million sq ft in 2021, from 39.4 million sq ft in the previous year, due to the unfavourable effect of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The demand is much less than the record 60.6 million sq ft attained in 2019. Releasing its report 'India Real Estate: 2021', property consultant Knight Frank India told the media that in an extraordinary year marred by the pandemic and lockdowns, the realty sector displayed great resilience last year. Residential sales in the second half of the past calendar year observed the highest volume since the first half of 2016. Despite the troubles generated by the pandemic, residential sales momentum surged across the leading eight markets of the nation due to an overload of demand stimulants like lowest home loan rates, government sops and change in attitude, Knight Frank India CMD Shishir Baijal, told the media. Strong market ideas must continue to help market volumes in the near term. In terms of 12-month housing cost change, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bengaluru listed an increment of 7%, 5% and 4%, respectively. Mumbai observed a marginal increment of 1%. The costs were recorded to be stable in Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune. The Delhi-NCR observed a marginal drop of 1%. Image Source