Housing Market On Upward Trajectory

The National Housing Bank released its ‘NHB RESIDEX' for quarter ended June 2022. Housing Price Index (HPI) tracks the movement in prices of residential properties in select 50 cities on quarterly basis with FY 2017-18 as the base year. On a sequential (quarter-of-quarter) basis, the 50-city index registered an expansion of 1.7% in April-June 2022 as against 2.6% in the previous quarter.

The index is showing an increasing trend since June-21 with Hyderabad - 1.9%, Vijayawada - 2.0%, and Vizag - 0.8% - recording moderate improvement in index during quarter April - June 2022 on a sequential basis.The 50 city HPI., based on valuation prices of properties collected from primary lending institutions, recorded an annual increase of 7% as compared with 1.8% a year ago during the same period. The annual change in HPI widely across the cities – ranged from an increase of 16.1% - Coimbatore, to a decline of 5.1% - Navi Mumbai.

The annual variation in HPI@ market price ranged from an increase of 28.6% - Bhubaneshwar, to a contraction of 13.2% - Indore. Hyderabad - 5.7%, Vijayawada - 4.3% and Vizag - 9.0% - recorded an annual increase in the index during this quarter. The 50 city Index witnessed an increase of 1.8% during the quarter compared to 1.9% in previous quarter. The uptick in the asking prices for properties is indicative of continued demand and rising cost of construction, added the release.

India Smartphone market declines by 1% YoY in 1H22

According to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation 's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 35 million smartphones were shipped to India in 2Q22 (April-June), a 3% year-over-year (YoY) growth, while the first half of 2022 declined by 1% YoY to 71 million units. The second quarter of the year normally has seasonally strong demand compared to the first quarter, but dwindling consumer demand led to a decline of 5% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).

The primary challenge in 2021 was around supply constraints, which have eased considerably. However, the market is now facing demand contraction in 2022 due to rising inflation and higher input costs, leading to higher market prices.The online channel reached a share of 52% with 5% YoY growth; this is expected to stay strong in the 2H22 (Jul-Dec) festival season, with more promotions during the sales events by e-tailer platforms. The offline channel registered flat growth of 1% after declining YoY for three consecutive quarters.

Outlook:

India's Consumer confidence continued to recover in July, but remained in the pessimistic zone, the consumer confidence survey released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.The current situation index (CSI) rose by 1.4 points from 75.9 in May to 77.3 in July. This was mainly on account of improved perception of employment, household income, and spending, the survey said.