If it feels as though every new project in Bengaluru, Gurgaon or Chennai is marketed as 'luxury', the data agrees with you. In Q1 2026 (January–March), homes priced above ₹1.5 crore accounted for about 53% of all new launches across India's top seven cities, according to ANAROCK Research. Homes below ₹40 lakh, the band ANAROCK classifies as affordable, made up only about 10%.

This is not a sudden shift. ANAROCK reported in October 2023 that the affordable share of new supply had already fallen to about 18% in Q3 2023, from about 42% in Q3 2018. What has changed is the degree: the premium tilt that began after the pandemic has become the default supply strategy of India's largest listed developers.

The supply mix, in disclosed numbers

  • Above ₹1.5 crore (high-end, luxury, ultra-luxury combined): about 53% of top-7-city launches in Q1 2026 (ANAROCK, Q1 2026).
  • ₹80 lakh – ₹1.5 crore (upper mid): about 25% of launches (ANAROCK, Q1 2026).
  • ₹40 – 80 lakh (lower mid): about 12% of launches (ANAROCK, Q1 2026).
  • Below ₹40 lakh (affordable): about 10% of launches (ANAROCK, Q1 2026).
  • On the demand side, homes above ₹1 crore made up about 54% of sales across eight major cities in H1 2026, up from 49% a year earlier, per Knight Frank India.

What developers and analysts actually cite as the reasons

Developers rarely say 'we prefer luxury because margins are higher' in a press release. But the reasoning is visible across research notes, management commentary and the disclosures themselves. ANAROCK describes the current supply profile as reflecting developer strategies focused on margin optimisation in an elevated cost environment. Its 2023 analysis was blunter, citing lower profit margins in affordable housing and high land costs that make affordable projects unviable in big cities.

Three economic drivers come up repeatedly.

  • Land cost does not scale down with the product. A city-centre or growth-corridor acre costs roughly the same whether a developer builds compact two-bedroom flats or large four-bedroom residences on it. Spreading that land cost over higher-priced units protects margin. This is Property Point's explanation of the mechanism, consistent with the land-cost reasoning ANAROCK cites.
  • Construction costs are rising. Prestige's chairman Irfan Razack acknowledged in June 2026 that construction costs were rising due to raw-material price increases after the West Asia conflict. In a lower-ticket project, the same cost increase consumes a much larger share of the selling price.
  • Demand has moved up the price curve. ANAROCK's June 2026 analysis of listed developers found that the strongest FY26 growth came from developers with significant premium and luxury portfolios. When the fastest-selling inventory is premium, launch plans follow.

Case study: Signature Global's move up-market

The clearest illustration is Signature Global. The Gurugram developer built its early business under Haryana's affordable housing policy, launching around ten affordable projects comprising roughly 9,700 flats, as Business Today reported in 2024 while describing its shift towards mid-segment and premium housing after low-cost projects became unviable.

Its own disclosures now show how far that shift has gone. Signature Global's average sales realisation rose to ₹17,093 per sq ft in Q1 FY27 from ₹15,250 per sq ft in FY26, per its July 2026 press release. In the same quarter it launched branded residences in collaboration with Tonino Lamborghini on Southern Peripheral Road, Gurugram, and its chairman attributed the strong response to appetite for branded, exclusive homes.

The luxury launches that defined the cycle

  • DLF Privana North, Gurugram: about ₹11,000 crore of bookings within a week of its June 2025 launch, with 1,152 four-bedroom residences and 12 penthouses starting at about ₹10 crore (Outlook Business).
  • Oberoi Realty, Three Sixty North, Sector 58, Gurugram: phase 1 bookings of about ₹8,109 crore in early July 2026 at an average realisation of roughly ₹35,000 per sq ft, with bids of about 3.7 times the launch inventory, per ICICI Securities' Q1 FY27 note.
  • Sobha's Q1 FY27 record quarter came at an average realisation of ₹15,655 per sq ft, with its managing director crediting launches in Bangalore and Gurgaon (Sobha press release, July 2026).

The counter-signal: not everyone has abandoned the middle

It would be wrong to conclude that sub-₹2 crore homes have disappeared from listed developers' books. Puravankara's Q1 FY27 investor presentation shows that 74% of its sales value came from units priced below ₹2 crore, and about 33% from units below ₹1 crore. Prestige reported plotted developments at an average ₹8,043 per sq ft in Q1 FY27, alongside apartments at ₹11,193.

There are also signs of strain at the top. ANAROCK reported that unsold inventory across the top seven cities rose about 12% year-on-year to roughly 6.31 lakh units in Q3 2026, while launches rose about 18% and sales only about 3%. Supply growing faster than absorption is something luxury buyers should watch closely.

What this means for buyers

Property Point's reading of the luxury tilt, for different kinds of buyer:

  • If you are buying luxury, you have more choice than ever, which means you should be more selective, not less. Compare several launches in the same corridor, and benchmark price per sq ft on the same area basis (carpet versus super built-up).
  • If you are buying in the ₹1–2 crore band, well-executed mid-premium projects from listed developers are relatively scarcer in prime corridors. That scarcity can support resale value, but it also means less room to negotiate.
  • If you are an end-user on a tighter budget, look at phases and formats developers still build at lower tickets: plotted developments, peripheral townships and smaller configurations in larger projects.
  • Do not pay for the word 'luxury'. Pay for specification, density, location and delivery record. Ask for the actual open-space percentage, units per floor, lift ratios and the developer's completion history in that city.

City lens: Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Chennai

Gurgaon is where the premium tilt is most extreme. ANAROCK reported NCR prices up about 15% year-on-year in Q1 2026, driven largely by the expanding share of luxury and ultra-luxury supply, and about 12% in Q3 2026. Bengaluru remains more balanced, with ANAROCK recording about 8% annual price growth in both quarters and a deeper mid-segment. Chennai is the most price-accessible of the three, with an ANAROCK average of about ₹7,165 per sq ft in Q1 2026 versus about ₹9,620 in NCR and ₹9,310 in Bengaluru.

How the tilt shows up inside developers' own numbers

The premium shift is visible not just in market-wide launch data but in individual company disclosures. Brigade's managing director attributed its FY26 realisation gain partly to a positive shift toward higher-value homes. Puravankara's West and Commercial segment saw realisation jump about 59% year-on-year in Q1 FY27 after a Mumbai launch, compared with about 7% for its southern portfolio. Sobha's average realisation moved from ₹13,412 per sq ft in FY25 to ₹14,675 in FY26 and ₹15,655 in Q1 FY27.

In each case, developers are selling a richer mix: larger homes, better locations, more premium specifications. For buyers, that means the 'average' home a listed developer sells today is meaningfully more expensive than the one it sold three years ago, independent of like-for-like price increases.

Questions to ask before paying a luxury premium

  • What is the price per sq ft on RERA carpet area, and how does it compare with recent resale transactions in the same micro-market?
  • What is the density: units per acre, units per floor and lifts per tower?
  • Which specifications are contractual (listed in the agreement) and which appear only in the brochure?
  • What does the developer's last completed project in this city look like today, three to five years after handover?
  • What are the expected maintenance charges, and how large is the sinking fund?
  • How much of the current phase is already sold, and at what price did the first phase launch?