Chennai only city to see increase in housing demand as overall sales drop 20% in April–June quarter

Chennai saw a rise in housing demand, fueled by the growing presence of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) over the past two years

Housing sales declined by an estimated 20% to 96,285 units during the April–June quarter across seven major cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Kolkata, down from 1,20,335 units in the same period last year.

Chennai was the only city to have recorded an increase in housing demand. This rise was largely driven by the growing presence of Global Capability Centres (GCCs). (Photo for representational purposes only) (Unsplash)

Chennai was the only city to buck the trend, recording an increase in housing demand. This rise was largely driven by the growing presence of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in the city over the past two years, which has fueled a parallel surge in residential demand, an analysis by Anarock has shown.

Of all the cities, only Chennai witnessed an 11% year-on-year rise in housing sales, with approximately 5,660 units sold in Q2 2025, compared to 5,100 units in Q2 2024. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the city saw a sharp 40% jump in sales, it said.

Various factors have contributed for the yearly increase in housing sales (11%) in Chennai. The increase in new launches by the developers have contributed to the rise in sales as well in the quarter, 65% yearly increase in new launches while 79% quarterly rise, as per Anarock Research.

Chennai added approximately 8,525 housing units in Q2 2025, a quarterly increase of 79% against Q1 2025 and an annual increase of 65%. Over 79% of new supply was added in the mid and premium segments. The city saw approximately 5,660 units sold in Q2 2025, increasing by 40% against Q1 2025. Annually, it saw a 11% rise in sales, the analysis showed.

Why was Chennai the only city to defy the trend?

The growing demand for office space by the GCCs in Chennai in the last two years has invariably led to high demand for housing as well.

Global capability centres, also known as GCCs or GICs, are offshore units of multinational corporations that operate across the globe. These centres are responsible for providing various support services, such as IT, finance, human resources, and analytics, to their parent organisations. Earlier, these units were primarily established to offshore back-office processes, but that is not the case today. GCCs of today handle more complex line items across the organisation’s value chain.

In Chennai, GCCs leased about a total of 5.29 mn sq. ft. of gross office space in the last two years. Of this, approximately 2 mn sq. ft. was leased in 2023 while nearly 3.29 mn sq. ft. was leased in 2024, thereby seeing a 64% annual rise. 2025 so far continues to see growing demand, as per Anarock Research.

Lastly, real estate developers are consciously bridging the demand-supply gap in Chennai which makes housing sales rise in the city as the new supply follows demand, it noted.

Overall, the second quarter of 2025 was a rollercoaster for the Indian housing market, rocked by major military actions at home and abroad. “The war-like climate pushed homebuyers into wait-and-watch mode, compounding the impact of soaring property prices over the past two years. Now, with domestic tensions easing and the RBI’s repo rate cut injecting fresh optimism, buyer sentiment is rebounding,” said Anuj Puri, chairman, ANAROCK Group.