Bengaluru: The IT hub emerged as the leading residential real estate market with 18,550 units sold in the last fiscal quarter, according to a report released by JLL Research’s Real Estate Intelligence Service (REIS) on Thursday. The report also highlighted that new launches in Bengaluru grew by nearly 45 per cent, with 16,537 units. Rahul Arora, senior managing director (Karnataka and Kerala), JLL India, said the sustained demand for property in Bengaluru supported by the booming IT sector, infrastructure upgradation programmes and favourable business environment is attracting many national and regional developers to the city, resulting in ‘good launches every quarter’. According to him, in Bengaluru, Whitefield contributed 47 per cent of new launches, followed by Hosur Road and Bellary Road. Upper-mid segment apartments (priced between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore) accounted for 62 per cent of the new launches in the last fiscal quarter. Whitefield Trends “Whitefield continues to maintain its prime position owing to its office sector expansion and the recent extension of Namma Metro. The corridor connecting Whitefield to Kempegowda International Airport via Budgere Cross has attracted several reputed developers, who have announced projects within the ticket price range of Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore,” Arora said. “Interestingly, nearly 25 per cent of Bengaluru’s sales were contributed by projects launched during the first six months of the year, indicating strong confidence of buyers in such developments,” said Samantak Das, chief economist and head of research, JLL and REIS, India. The city’s unsold inventory also recorded a significant decline, he added. With a massive surge in demand for rental housing across top cities, average rental values have gone up and rental yields – the annual ROI that investors get from the capital invested in a property – have been rising steadily, according to Anarock data released in April 2024. The data indicated that as before, IT-dominated Bengaluru topped the list with a rental yield of 4.45% in Q1 2024. Supported by strong rental demand post-pandemic, rental values across key areas of the city have been steadily rising after IT companies returned to office. Bengaluru’s rental yield was 3.6% in pre-Covid 2019, reflecting a 24% increase over this period.