Examining the Factors that Drive the Variation in Housing Prices Across India During and After the COVID-19 pandemic | RISE Research

This research analyzes how housing prices in India’s major cities fluctuated before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from the National Housing Bank’s RESIDEX index (base year 2017 = 100). By comparing city-level trends from March 2019 to March 2024, the study explores how regional economic strength, infrastructure development, and policy interventions shaped housing market dynamics across ten major urban centers, including Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Jaipur. The pandemic’s disruptions — from job losses and halted construction to migration shifts — are examined alongside the post-2022 resurgence in real estate activity that reflected renewed investor confidence and macroeconomic stabilization.

Through a comparative and data-driven approach, the paper identifies both momentum and reversion patterns in housing markets, illustrating how some cities rapidly recovered while others experienced prolonged stagnation. For example, Mumbai and Hyderabad recorded robust rebounds fueled by infrastructure expansion and urban migration, whereas Kolkata and Jaipur showed slower growth due to weaker local demand. By integrating secondary research and city-wise analyses, the study highlights the uneven recovery of India’s real estate sector and reveals how housing prices are deeply tied to local economic diversity, construction costs, and migration patterns.

Ultimately, the research underscores the real estate sector’s critical role in India’s economic recovery and macro-financial stability. It concludes that sustainable housing policy must balance growth with affordability, ensuring that infrastructure investment and credit accessibility do not exacerbate regional inequality. In doing so, the study contributes to broader debates on post-pandemic economic planning and the structural resilience of India’s housing market.