According to a report by real estate consultant Anarock, real estate developers in the top seven cities have significantly expanded the dimensions of apartments in response to the growing demand for larger living areas.Â
The average size of apartments in these cities has seen a notable increase of seven percent since 2018. However, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) stands out as an exception, as property sizes have actually decreased by 20 percent within the same time frame, as per the report.
According to recent data, the average sizes of flats in the top seven cities, including Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and National Capital Region, have witnessed a 7% increase over the past five years. These flat sizes have grown from approximately 1,120 sq ft in 2018 to around 1,225 sq ft in the first quarter of 2023.Â
Anorck Chairmen, Anuj Puri said, “The liquidity crisis, changing buyer preferences, and growing concerns about affordability… have caused real estate developers to rethink the conventional wisdom of ‘bigger is better’, and significantly moderate unit sizes across seven major cities,”
Puri added, “Before Covid-19, apartment sizes were shrinking annually to meet the demand for compact homes prevalent then,” he also said, “MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) is the only city where average flat sizes reduced in the last five years – from 932 sq ft in 2018 to 743 sq ft in first quarter of 2023. In these five years, only 2020 saw average flat sizes in MMR an annual rise of 21 per cent against 2019. Since 2020, homes in the region are shrinking.”Â
However, in 2020, there was an unexpected shift in the priorities of home buyers. The rise of the work-from-home and remote learning culture resulted in a noticeable surge in the size of apartments for the first time in four years.
In 2023, the demand for property is heading. As per the Anarock data, average apartment sizes increased by 7% in the top seven cities from 2018.
