New launches in Navi Mumbai witness 5 pc increase in apartment size: Knight Frank

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Mar 12 : With increasing demand for large home space amid Covid-19 pandemic, the average apartment size in new launches across Navi Mumbai has seen a rise of 5 per cent to 722 square feet compared to 685 square feet in 2019, according to Knight Frank.
The city registered residential sales of 2,384 units and new launches at 2,860 units in second half of last year, said Knight Frank's latest India Real Estate H2 2020 report.
Home sales in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) witnessed a rise of 10.4 per cent to 30,041 units but new launches declined by 25.2 per cent to 26,904 units.
The report said that the boom in residential sales can largely be attributed to state government's recent announcement of stamp duty reduction from 5 to 7 per cent to 2 to 4 per cent across various MMR regions for seven months from September 2020.
As homebuyers in mid- and high-income groups have made most of the lower stamp duty window, 57 per cent of units sold in MMR were in the Rs 50 lakh segment.
In the context of connectivity and infrastructure development, Navi Mumbai is well connected to Mumbai with railway networks.
The area was developed to be an organised and planned extension of Mumbai which is why it has planned sanitation, progressive transit infrastructure and social infrastructure provisions like parks, schools and gymnasiums.
The report said Navi Mumbai already has a fully functioning JNPT shipping port and plans to house Mumbai's second international airport at Panvel.
Residential property prices in the areas of Kharghar (Rs 6,700 to 9,000 per square feet) and Panvel (Rs 3,800 to 6,500 psf) have witnessed a drop of 4 per cent while prices in residential market of Vashi (Rs 10,000 to 15,000 psf) slipped by 2 per cent in H2 2020.