Mumbai realty robust despite small fall in flat sales in Feb

MUMBAI: Mumbai's real estate market continues to be robust despite a minor blip in February when flat sales clocked a 2.40 per cent decline, a leading industry body said.

The city reported a marginal decline in flat registrations at 16,341 in February as against 16,743 registrations in the year-ago period, data from the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry ( MCHI) showed.

"There has been no sharp decline in Mumbai's real estate market--there has only been a marginal decline in sales figures of residential apartments," MCHI said in a statement here.

The decline in flat sales in the first two months of this year is not severe, MCHI's President Sunil Mantri said, admitting, however, to a small dip in the same during the period.

"Although it is a fact that flat sales did decline in the first two-months of the current year, the extent of fall is not that severe as is being made out to be by some," Mantri said.

In 2010 (January-December), Mumbai clocked a total registration of 2,17,466 as compared to 1,94,885 in the previous year, MCHI data showed.