Mumbai led all other cities, with a 38 per cent share in new and re-launched projects.With the help of conducive government policies such as lower stamp duty and lower home loan interest rates, housing unit sales increased 20 per cent year-on-year between January-March 2021.

According to a recent report by leading real estate portal 99acres.com, the fourth and last quarter of the financial year 2020-21, registered the launch of as many as 600 new residential projects across the top eight metro cities.

Even amid rising COVID-19 cases, Mumbai led all other cities for the third consecutive quarter, registering a 38 per cent share in the new and re-launched projects.Registering a 21 per cent share, Hyderabad overtook Pune to bag the second position.

Delhi contributed a three per cent share in the overall new housing unit additions.

In the first quarter of 2021 - January-March, Mumbai and Delhi were the two metro cities that topped the chart for luxury housing.

Majority of the demand for property priced over Rs 1 crore was driven by Delhi and Mumbai, followed by Bengaluru and Hyderabad.However, affordable housing within the range of Rs 40 lakh was the most sought-after choice with Kolkata leading the housing demand, followed by Chennai, Ahemdabad, and Pune.

The report added that the premium market picked up some pace, due to the non-resident Indians (NRI) demand in some cities such as Bengaluru and Pune.In cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad, the average property rates went up by a small margin.

The average prices sustained the status quo in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Pune. The office leasing market was led by the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector a with 20 per cent of total leasing across the top eight cities.

The second place was bagged by the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector with a 15.4 per cent share in office leasing.