(2024–2025) Sales shift: 2BHK & below vs 3BHK & above in India’s mega cities

(2024–2025) Sales shift: 2BHK & below vs 3BHK & above in India’s mega cities

Across India’s biggest housing markets, 2024–2025 wasn’t just a “more/less sales” story—it was a mix story. Even where total unit sales softened in 2025, the market continued to tilt toward larger, higher-ticket homes (read: 3BHK+) while smaller formats (2BHK & below) faced affordability pressure and a supply re-think.

Below is a LinkedIn-style, data-backed narrative you can publish (with clear, defensible signals from leading research).

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1) The headline pattern: volume cooled, value stayed resilient

A key marker of “premiumisation” is when units fall but transaction value rises.

• In the top cities, 2025 saw housing sales volume decline (reported as ~14% YoY), while overall transaction value rose—suggesting buyers are purchasing higher-priced (often larger) homes even when fewer total homes are sold.

This is consistent with developers prioritising “margin over volume” and a rising share of premium/luxury demand.

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2) Why 3BHK+ gained ground in 2024–2025

A) “Unit upsizing” became structural (not temporary)

Research tracking buyer preference shows the 3BHK+ share rising meaningfully compared to the pre-2019 era:

• 3BHK+ share in buyer preference: ~45–50% (vs ~30% in 2018).
• Average unit sizes increased across cities between 2022–2025 (with especially sharp jumps in some markets), reinforcing the “bigger homes” trend.

Interpretation: Even if a buyer “could” buy a 2BHK, many upgraded to 3BHK where budgets and loan eligibility allowed—driven by WFH/hybrid space needs, lifestyle upgrades, and long-term holding intent.

B) Premium ticket sizes accelerated in 2024 (and carried into 2025)

A strong proxy for 3BHK+ growth is “premium ticket size growth,” because larger configurations typically sit in higher ticket brackets.

• In H1 2024, homes priced above INR 10 million formed a large share of sales, with that segment growing strongly YoY—while sub-INR 5 million sales declined.
• Developers increased launch share in higher ticket categories, indicating they were actively building for bigger budgets.

Interpretation: When the premium bracket grows while the affordable bracket slows, the configuration mix usually shifts toward larger 2.5/3/4BHK formats (and larger carpet areas).

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3) What happened to 2BHK & below (and why growth looked weaker)

A) Affordability pinch hits smaller buyers first

Smaller ticket-size cohorts are more rate-sensitive and EMI-sensitive. Research points to a sustained slowdown in the lowest ticket segment over multiple half-years, driven by rising prices and borrowing costs.

So even in 2024–2025, demand existed—but conversion weakened in many micro-markets unless pricing stayed sharply value-oriented.

B) Developers also changed what they launched

As premium segments delivered better margins, many developers shifted capital allocation and launch strategy toward higher-priced homes.

Result: In several “mega city” corridors, 2BHK & below became:

• either scarcer in new supply, or
• present mainly in peripheral locations / smaller carpet plans / compact “2BHK smart” products.

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4) Mega-city evidence of the mix shift (configuration-by-proxy)

Because India doesn’t have one single official public dataset that cleanly reports every city’s sales by BHK (developer-by-developer data is fragmented), analysts often triangulate using unit size bands and ticket-size bands.

Example signal from a major metro market (registration-based size band shift):

• Kolkata saw mid-sized apartments (501–1,000 sq ft) rise sharply in share year-on-year, while the smallest band reduced—showing movement away from “smallest homes” toward larger formats.

And in Bengaluru, reports and market commentary highlight a clear consumer tilt toward 3BHK as the new default in many corridors (especially for families and hybrid-work households).

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5) So… what’s the “sales growth” comparison for 2024–2025?

Here’s the cleanest, defensible way to state it in a professional article:

2024 → 2025 directionally (mega cities)

3BHK & above

• Gained share of buyer preference and market value
• Supported by premium ticket-size growth and “unit upsizing”

2BHK & below

• Slower growth / softer conversions in many markets
• More exposed to affordability pressure; in several markets, also faced reduced launch focus as developers chased higher margins

If you want to put it in one punchline for LinkedIn:

2024–2025 wasn’t a uniform boom—sales increasingly concentrated in larger, premium homes, while smaller homes stayed demand-rich but affordability-constrained.

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6) What this means for builders, brokers, and investors (actionable takeaways)

For developers

• 3BHK+ is the margin engine in most mega-city corridors—but watch inventory build-up risks in premium categories.
• 2BHK can still win where it’s:
• transit-led (Metro, ring roads),
• sharply priced vs local incomes,
• designed as efficient carpet layouts (“smart 2BHK”).

For brokers / sales teams

• Sell 3BHK+ with the “use-case” lens: WFH room + parents + storage + lifestyle.
• Sell 2BHK as EMI certainty + location trade-off + faster liquidity (especially for first-time buyers).

For investors

• In mega cities, 3BHK+ often benefits from “end-user depth” in premium hubs.
• 2BHK can outperform on liquidity in mid-income micro-markets—but only when supply remains steady and pricing doesn’t run ahead of wages.

 

© Dhananjay Parmar

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