New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS): The coming festive season is likely to witness a surge in demand for residential properties and the housing sales may rise 35 per cent across the top seven cities during the October-December period on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, according to Anarock Property Consultants.

In the July-September quarter, the major seven markets collectively reported the sale of 29,520 housing units.

"The reason for the rise is the prevailing lowest-ever home loan interest rates, developers' willingness to offer good deals and discounts, coupled with limited-period government incentives such as reduced stamp duty and registration charges in markets like MMR," said Santhosh Kumar, Vice-Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants.

He further noted that the base period in consideration (Q3 2020) is still low against the pre-COVID-19 quarter when housing sales were nearly 45,200 units.

"In all, we anticipate the housing sales to rebound to 90 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 levels (Q1 2020)," Kumar said.

As per the report, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) may witness a rise of 33-36 per cent in sales, with buyers looking to make the most of the limited period offer of reduced stamp duty charges, developer discounts and freebies, and prevailing low home loan interest rates.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), sales may jump 27-31 per cent in the festive season.

Sales in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune are likely to grow by 20-24 per cent, 30-35 per cent and 34 per cent in Q4 2020 respectively, as against Q3 2020.