By AI-Powered PMC Akbar Jiwani, Special Correspondent: Real Estate, for Realnewsofindia.com
ndia’s housing market is heading into the Navratri-Dussehra-Diwali stretch on a note of cautious optimism, as a fresh round of industry data and a large buyer-sentiment survey both point to steady — if slower-growing — demand through the rest of 2026.
BUYERS ARE WILLING, BUT PRICE-CONSCIOUS
According to the Colliers Homebuying Sentiment Survey 2026, “Decoding India’s Evolving Buyer Preferences,” which polled roughly 1,800 respondents across more than 30 established and emerging residential markets, around half of prospective buyers say they intend to purchase a home within the next two years. A majority, 54 per cent, believe global macroeconomic volatility will have a relatively limited impact on Indian real estate, underlining the sector’s growing insulation from external shocks.
The survey found that affordability remains the single biggest concern for buyers, cited by roughly a third of respondents, followed closely by job security and income visibility. Even so, demand is concentrated in a fairly accessible band: 46 per cent of respondents said they were looking at homes priced between ₹50 lakh and ₹1.5 crore, and 62 per cent preferred 2-3 BHK configurations. Larger units are finding favour in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, while Mumbai buyers continue to lean toward more compact homes given price pressures in the city.
Notably, more than 60 per cent of buyers said they now prefer ready-to-move-in or near-completion properties over under-construction projects — a preference that skews stronger among buyers over 30, while younger, under-30 buyers appear more comfortable absorbing construction-linked risk in exchange for early-stage pricing.
“Housing sales going forward will depend on price-value alignment, financing flexibility and product-market fit,” said Ravi Shankar Singh, Managing Director, Residential Transaction Services at Colliers India. Vimal Nadar, National Director and Head of Research at Colliers India, added that the festive season is expected to sustain buyer interest, but developers “will need to align product offerings” more closely with what affordability-conscious buyers can absorb.
FESTIVE PIPELINE: MODERATING GROWTH, NOT A SLOWDOWN
Separately, projections from Knight Frank India and Anarock suggest the coming festive quarter (July-September and the Dussehra-Diwali window) will see sales modestly ahead of the preceding quarter, even as the pace of year-on-year growth cools compared with the exuberance of the past two years. Knight Frank’s Vivek Rathi noted that festival-period sales in 2026 are expected to exceed 2025 levels, with new launches across the top eight cities already up 4 per cent year-on-year in the first half of the year. Anarock’s Santhosh Kumar projects third-quarter sales across the top seven cities running 3-4 per cent above the second quarter, with new launches potentially up to 10 per cent higher year-on-year.
Developers are lining up accordingly. Gurugram-based Signature Global plans two launches worth ₹10,000-12,000 crore timed for Dussehra and Diwali, as it targets ₹10,000 crore in FY27 pre-sales. Embassy Developments is readying close to ₹10,000 crore worth of new projects, concentrated largely in Bengaluru, even as it expects overall industry sales to stay broadly flat year-on-year. Smaller and mid-sized players, including Smartworld Developers and Bengaluru-focused Krishvi Group, say premium and luxury segments — homes priced upward of ₹1.5 crore, and in some cases above ₹10 crore — are likely to see the strongest festive-season traction.
An Anarock consumer poll of over 8,200 homebuyers reinforces the affordability theme: 65 per cent said they were moderately concerned about rising prices, and 40 per cent see the increases as a long-term trend rather than a temporary spike. Yet 44 per cent said they would proceed with a purchase regardless. Demand for homes priced above ₹1.5 crore has more than doubled over five years, rising to 27 per cent of buyers in the first half of 2026 from just 13 per cent in the first half of 2021 — a sign of the market’s continuing shift toward premiumisation even as affordability concerns persist at the entry level.
POLICY BACKDROP STAYS SUPPORTIVE
The demand outlook is being underpinned by a stable policy environment: the Reserve Bank of India has held its repo rate steady at 5.25 per cent through recent reviews, keeping home-loan costs predictable heading into the festive season, while earlier GST rationalisation on key construction inputs such as cement and marble/granite has trimmed input costs for developers. Taken together, industry watchers say the ingredients are in place for a healthy, if more measured, festive season — one defined less by frenzied volume growth and more by how well developers price and position their projects for a buyer base that is willing to purchase, but increasingly doing the arithmetic first.
