New Delhi, Feb 25 (IANS): With about 20 percent of goods stocked in urban households having become obsolete for the owners, the used goods market has surged to an estimated Rs.56,200 crore, an online e-commerce portal said Wednesday.

"For the first time, (we) put a figure on this market - Rs.56,200 crore in 2015 - just in urban India," Amarjit Singh Batra, CEO of Olx, said in a statement.

Batra said the valuation will be much higher if semi-urban and rural centres are also taken into consideration.

The company, which recently conducted a study on the second-hand goods segment, said that in early 2014, the estimated national valuation of used merchandise was Rs.22,000 crore.

According to the company, stocking has been a prominent trend in 2014, with 87 percent households stocking used goods in India, while 45 percent feature as sellers.

"While northern India tops the selling chart with 48 percent households doing so, the eastern region leads stocking with 97 percent and the west is the frontrunner in buying used goods," the company said.

As per the study, the top four categories of goods stocked across India were clothing, utensils and books followed by mobile phones.

It said 83 percent of homes in the national capital have unused items, while Kolkata seems to be the most eager to sell its used goods. Interestingly, the IT capital of India, Bengaluru, features as "the least-selling friendly metro".

The study said the key reason for stocking goods at home was based on people's wish "to use these goods at a later date". At least 18 percent of urban homes stocked commodities due to sentimental values.

On an average, each urban home was stocking an estimated Rs.8,400 worth of used goods with the Tier-1 cities' stocking figure rocketing to Rs.19,500.