bengaluru 99416 residential units were sold in india in the first half of this year up 67 from the same period a year earlier while new launches jumped 71 to 103238 units data from independent property consultancy knight frank showthe first three months of the year reported more sales with mumbai and pune contributing about 45 to the overall numbers largely due to the state governments decision to lower stamp duty for a limited period while residential sales started to show aresurgence the momentum got impacted by the second wave of the pandemic starting towards the end of march the second wave despite its extremely morbid potency was less severe on the residential real estate marketthe gradual resumption of economic activity and increasing availability of the vaccine had sparked market traction in the second half of 2020 and this momentum carried over into q1 2021 the second wave of covid19 infections has impeded this momentum but should be seen as more of a speed bump said shishir baijal cmd of knight frank indiaall major markets saw launches increase significantly as developers took measures to capitalize on the strength of demand a majority of the new launches wererecorded in the first quarter of the year and launches dried up after that with the second quarter accounting for just 25 of the total launches but when compared to the same period of last year the growth was nearly fivefoldwhile prices remained unchanged unsold inventory apartments built but are yet to be sold reduced reflecting some spurt in sales the impact of the pandemic was acutely felt in home sales under the affordable categorythe share of sales of homes costing less than rs 50 lakhs reduced 5 and constituted 42 of all sales in the last six months homes costing over rs 1 crore constituted about 19 while the midmarket segment prices ranging between rs 50 lakh and rs 1 crore contributed 39