:  Chennai has 20% completed unsold inventory in real estate, the highest percentage in the country, according to a recent survey by real estate services firm, Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL).

The  survey found that  as many as 42,500 units are unsold, of which nearly 8,500 are in ready-to-move-in condition.

The southern suburbs of Chennai, including Old Mahabalipuram Road and East Coast Road have approximately unsold 30,000 units, which account for 75% of the total unsold inventory, while western suburbs, including NH 4 and GST road, recorded the second largest volume of unsold inventory of 8,000 units. Both these locations are driven by end-user demand, which has been slow in uptake last year.

The data shows that most of the unsold inventory is in locations that were impacted in the deluge of December 2015, which drastically brought down the attractiveness of such projects.

In contrast the city has seen a strong trend in the uptake of commercial office space in the last few quarters. “If the trend continues to remain strong, we should expect to see a simultaneous uptake in residential sector, albeit, the trend usually takes a few quarters to follow,” said, Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head, JLL India.

“Largely end-user driven, the Chennai residential market has tried to maintain its balance by limiting the unit launches in the last few quarters. Capital values have remained stable, indicating it to be a buyers’ market. The prolonged period of low activity in this asset class is, however, impacting the market, which is not witnessing investments to its true potential,” he said.

“Demonetisation, RERA and GST hit the realty sector hard in Chennai in 2017. Also, there was an impact on the inventory because of natural calamities like Cyclone Vardah, flood in the city, and the overall decrease in the number of jobs being created,” said T. Chitty Babu, Chairman and CEO, Akshaya Pvt. Ltd.

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