Too Early To Say Real Estate Seeing Slowdown: Knight Frank India’s Gulam Zia

Even though unsold inventory is increasing while sales are seeing a dip in many cities across India, it is too early to say that the real estate market is seeing a slowdown, according to Gulam Zia, Senior Executive Director, Knight Frank India.

He underlined the importance of looking at the velocity of sales to assess the situation before reaching the conclusion of a potential slowdown in the real estate sector.

“One factor that not many have been talking about is that velocities have been pretty much steady. When we are looking at the amount of time required for the selling of the entire inventory in the market, even today, it is not more than two and a half years. It gives comfort that the bad times are not yet around the corner,” he told NDTV Profit on Tuesday.

Zia cautioned against jumping to conclusions about a market downturn in the housing sector.

“My point is that while numbers are indicating a little slowdown, however, we have to look at a couple of more quarters before convincingly saying that the slowdown is here to stay. Otherwise, it could still be just one more blip in the data,” he highlighted.

However, the situation varies across cities. Zia pointed out that the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) is facing a “worrisome” scenario with slower sales and higher inventories. Bengaluru, too, is showing signs of shakiness. 

“We have to look at how quickly these inventories are going off the shelf and that number varies from city to city. Like up north, perhaps in NCR, it is actually some worrisome situation arising out of NCR, even Bangalore is going a little shaky.”

In contrast, Mumbai and other major markets remain relatively stable.

“In Mumbai, despite concerns about slowing transactions, the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) data shows that property registrations in July 2025 were neck-and-neck with July 2024,” Zia noted.

He revealed that property transactions in Mumbai for July surpassed 12,000 units, a figure very similar to the same month last year. This year-on-year consistency suggests resilience in Mumbai's property market despite broader challenges.