Buying a home gets tougher: 8 in 10 Indians struggle with rising prices

Buying a home gets tougher: 8 in 10 Indians struggle with rising prices

Buying a home is getting tougher for most Indians. Rising home prices have emerged as a pressing concern for more than 81 percent of property seekers across India, with average residential values surging over 50 percent in just two years, according to ANAROCK’s Consumer Sentiment Survey for H1 2025.

In the top seven cities, average prices have climbed from Rs 6,001 per sq. ft. in Q2 2023 to Rs 8,990 per sq. ft. by Q2 2025, up by around 50 percent.

The findings show a clear gap in the affordable housing market—62 percent of potential buyers are unhappy with existing options, and 92 percent are dissatisfied with where these projects are located.

Anuj Puri, Chairman - ANAROCK Group, said that city-wise trends indicate that while residential property seekers across cities are extremely concerned about the rising prices in their respective cities, MMR has emerged as a surprising outlier.

"In India's most over-the-top expensive real estate market (Mumbai), just 39 percent of our respondent property seekers expressed high concern about the steep prices in the region. The remaining 61 percent have equally surprising takes – 20 percent are not at all concerned, and 41 percent only moderately so,” he said.

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The survey, which was released on September 8, saw approximately 8,250 participants.

Budget Preferences

The survey showed that Rs 90 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore has emerged as the “most favoured” option for over 36 percent of prospective homebuyers - indicating a stronger shift towards premium and luxury properties.

Around 25 percent of respondents prefer homes priced between Rs 45 lakh and Rs 90 lakh.

Bigger homes continue to dominate buyer demand as 45 percent respondents prefer 3BHKs. The share of affordable housing -- homes priced below Rs 45 lakh -- shrinks further to 17 percent in H1 2025 from 40 percent in H1 2020.

Puri said that new supply of affordable housing has nosedived in the last two years across the top 7 cities – from 18 percent in H1 2023 to just 12 percent in H1 2025.

Industry experts said that limited land parcels, rising inward migration, and sustained infrastructure upgrades are key drivers of this resilience.

Ready-to-move-in Vs New Launches

The H1 2025 survey finds that demand for ready-to-move homes is declining - and is, in fact, at the lowest end of the preference chart.

As of H1 2025, the ratio of demand for ready homes against new launches stood at 16:29, against 20:25 in H1 2024. This is a complete trend reversal compared to H1 2020, when the demand ratio stood at 46:18, and H1 2021, when it was 32:21.