Apartment Sizes in Mumbai See Significant Fall
The last two years have seen a growing trend of reduced property sizes in key realty markets across the country including Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and Bengaluru. This trend has been observed especially in MMR, which is further substantiated by the data available from CommonFloor.
Property sizes in MMR go down
If one has observed the trend since 2012, it may be found that property sizes have constantly reduced, while prices have almost remained the same or marginally increased. The trend, in fact, started as early as 2009. However, it became increasingly visible over the last two years. This has several reasons.
1. One of the main reasons for increasing number of small-sized properties is the affordability aspect. Prices in Mumbai have seen a meteoric rise over the last few years. Yet every individual aspires to own a home there. Understanding the affordability aspect of prospective buyers, builders and developers have started launching properties that are smaller in size, yet fall well within the budget of the home buyer. The latter, on his part, wouldn’t mind living within the city limits even if it means compromising on the size of the property.
2. Secondly, MMR is witnessing a rapid increase in population over the last few decades. Mumbai is currently the seventh most populous city in the world with a population of over 20 million (including MMR), and in the league of Tokyo and Delhi. An increasing population raises concerns for available space. This may be considered a key contributor to the reducing property sizes over the past few years.
3. While many people like the idea of a bigger space, there is a considerable chunk of population that prefers a smaller space, as it is easy to maintain a small space. This too is a minor contributor to the reducing sizes of apartments.
Data supports reducing sizes
The data available from CommonFloor establishes the reducing sizes across the different regions of MMR. The following table gives a comparison of the sizes of different configurations of apartments in MMR.
| Area in MMR | 1BHK (sq. ft.) in 2012 | 2BHK (sq. ft.) in 2012 | 3BHK (sq. ft.) in 2012 | 1BHK (sq. ft.) in 2014 | 2BHK (sq. ft.) in 2014 | 3BHK (sq. ft.) in 2014 |
| Mumbai | 622 | 995.25 | 1,562.62 | 623.28 | 984.92 | 1,484 |
| Thane | 631.36 | 980.69 | 1,360.57 | 639.6 | 936.58 | 1,378.22 |
| Navi Mumbai | 644 | 1,083.84 | 1,523.55 | 641.92 | 1,037.35 | 1,480.38 |
Table 1: Average price per sq. ft. in different parts of MMR in 2010 and 2013 (CommonFloor)
One may see from the above table (Table 1) that property prices across Mumbai for various configurations have reduced over the last three years. The overall fall in property sizes was in the range of 1.5-8 per cent across different areas.
With the growing population and increasing property prices in Mumbai, one may look at this trend continuing for the next few years.
