Premium homes now exceed half of India's sales as the affordable segment keeps shrinking

Homes priced above Rs 1 crore made up 54% of residential sales across India's eight largest cities in the first half of 2026, up from 49% a year earlier, according to Knight Frank. Over the same period, sales of affordable homes below Rs 50 lakh fell about 15% to roughly 32,000 units, extending a multi-year slide at the budget end.

Overall sales were near flat at about 1.71 lakh units while new launches ran ahead at roughly 1.87 lakh — a sign the market has moved from broad recovery toward stabilisation. Thin new supply at lower price points, as much as demand, is squeezing the affordable and mid-income categories.

The pattern matters for the MMR, where land costs and redevelopment economics push developers toward higher-ticket products; Knight Frank pegged Mumbai as the country's most expensive market at about Rs 36,881 per square foot. That helps explain resilient headline values even as unit-level affordability stays stretched.

The consultancy cautioned that if launches keep outpacing sales, developers may lean harder on incentives — flexible payment plans, subvention schemes and stamp-duty sweeteners — to move inventory through the rest of the year.