new delhi apr 29 housing sales dipped by 5 per cent to 75706 units in nine major cities during januarymarch period because of transition in gst rates according to a report by property brokerage firm proptiger the company which is part of news corpbacked elara technologies that also owns housingcom and makaancom monday released its real insight report for q4 201819 that tracks housing sales and new launches in nine major cities bengaluru kolkata mumbai chennai hyderabad pune ahmedabad gurugram and noida housing sales in indias nine key property markets declined 5 per cent yearonyear yoy and new project launches fell 32 per cent annually during q4 201819 the report said adding that the unsold housing stock numbers declined by 10 per cent proptiger attributed the decline in home sales numbers to changes in the goods and services tax gst transition rules in contrast to proptiger report real estate consultant anarock recently said housing sales rose by 58 per cent to 78520 units in seven major cities during january march period of 2019 data analytics firm propequity said sales saw a 5 per cent rise at 56146 units during januarymarch 2019 over the yearago quarter in the nine major cities as per the proptiger data housing sales rose maximum in hyderabad by 26 per cent at 7059 units in the januarymarch quarter of 2019 from 5618 units in the yearago period gurugram witnessed 10 per cent rise in sales at 5764 units from 5220 units in the corresponding period of the previous year sales in kolkata were up by 8 per cent at 3623 units pune saw 5 per cent rise in sales at 14348 units from 13712 units during the period under the review while mumbai reported 4 per cent increase in sales at 23718 units however housing sales declined by 23 per cent in bengaluru to 8402 units chennai too witnessed 13 per cent dip in sales at 4197 units ahmedabad reported 10 per cent dip in sales at 4739 units the maximum fall in was in noida with sales dropping by 50 per cent at 3856 units while there might not be any significant improvement in new launch and home sales numbers in the first quarter of 201920 things may start to change after the results of the lok sabha elections are announced in fact as more clarity emerges pertaining to gst issues these numbers might see improvement in the quarters that follow property rates would also see an upwards movement in the times to come elara technologies group chief operating officer mani rangarajan said in late february the gst council decided to cut gst rate on affordable homes to 1 per cent from earlier 8 per cent the gst on underconstruction flats which are not under the affordable housing segment was reduced to 5 per cent from 12 per cent earlier the new gst rates were made effective from april 1 the developers were also denied input tax credit mjh rvk rvk