Housing prices rose in 39 cities during January-March, according to the National Housing Bank’s housing price index NHB RESIDEX.

It showed that the highest price growth of 9.4% recorded was in Lucknow during the quarter ended March.

It showed that for under-construction properties the overall year-on-year increase was recorded in 39 cities while there was a decrease in 10 cities and no change in one city.

Residential prices rose 8.5% in Kolkata, 5% in Hyderabad, 3.8% in Mumbai, 3.3% in Delhi, 2.3% in Bengaluru, 2.2% in Ahmedabad and 0.7% in Chennai, while Pune saw prices decline 1.4% from a year ago.

According to India’s official housing price index, of the 39 cities showing an uptrend in index, significant rise was witnessed in Lucknow at 9.4%, Panvel at 8.6%, Kolkata at 8.5%, Indore at 7.1%, Thane at 6.5% and Chandigarh at 6.4%.

Marginal annual increase in index was witnessed in 3 cities including Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Chakan at 0.7% each. The index remained stable in Gandhinagar.

Among 10 cities witnessing a fall in index, Patna with 12.2%, Faridabad with 7.1%, Vadodara with 3.5%, Rajkot with 1.8%, Bhopal with 1.7%, Howrah with 1.7% and Pune with 1.4% observed significant decline.

Marginal annual decrease in index was witnessed in Vasai-Virar property market at 0.9%, Meerut at 0.8% and Nashik at 0.8%.

NHB RESIDEX is an initiative of the National Housing Bank (NHB), undertaken at the behest of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance. The indices use 2012-13 as the base year.

(ends)