In pandemic yr of 2021, luxurious automobiles gross sales, gold import clocked new highs

In 2021, a yr when the second wave of the pandemic relegated discretionary spending to the backburner, luxurious items and gadgets bucked the development. Top-end automobiles, gold and jewelry and super-luxury residential initiatives recorded a surge in numbers over the past yr, topping not simply the pre-pandemic ranges but additionally, in some circumstances, ranges reported 5-10 years in the past.
Consider these:
* German carmaker BMW clocked a 35% development in 2021 — its highest in India in a decade.
* In the primary 9 months of 2021-22, the worth of gold imports exceeded final full yr’s variety of $34.60 billion to succeed in $37.98 billion.
* ‘The Camellias’, DLF’s Gurgaon based mostly super-luxury mission, clocked document new gross sales value Rs 1,037 crore through the July-September quarter of 2021.
The development is clear in gross sales clocked by top-end carmakers.
During the yr, the BMW Group offered 8,876 items of BMW and MINI automobiles, and 5,191 items of high-end bikes.
Its rival Audi, a Volkswagen group firm, reported a two-fold leap in retail gross sales at 3,293 items in India in 2021, in comparison with 1,639 items in 2020. The uptick was propelled by Audi’s top-of-the-line electrical automobiles — e-tron 50, e-tron 55, e-tron Sportback 55, e-tron GT, RS e-tron GT — and the petrol drivetrain Q-range and A-sedans.
By the primary 9 months of calendar yr 2021, Mercedes Benz India had exceeded the full-year gross sales of 2020. In the July-September quarter alone, the corporate doubled its gross sales to 4,101 items from 2,060 items in the identical quarter of 2020. The firm had additionally indicated having constructed a “strong order-bank” for many of its current and new merchandise.
India’s greatest real-estate firm by revenues, DLF Ltd, stated its super-luxury section exhibited “outperformance”, backed by the efficiency of its ‘Camellias’ mission. The firm offered 34 items within the mission, with every unit sometimes going at a charge of round Rs 40,000 per sq. ft.
According to real-estate consultancy agency Anarock, the share of luxurious housing gross sales as a part of complete residential gross sales rose to 12% (within the first 9 months of 2021) in comparison with 7% in pre-Covid 2019.
In one other examine, Anarock stated that within the July-September quarter, items value Rs 4,000 crore have been offered within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region within the luxurious and ultra-luxury segments. The luxurious section includes items priced between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2.5 crore, and the ultra-luxury section includes items priced over Rs 2.5 crore.
The commodities area too has seen a choice for luxurious items.
After two straight years of decline, in 2020-21, the worth of India’s gold imports reversed the development and publish a development to clock $34.60 billion. In the primary 9 months of the continuing fiscal, the worth of gold imports has already exceeded final full yr’s quantity to succeed in $37.98 billion —that is the best in a minimum of the final 5 years on the again of buoyant shopper demand, in line with Department of Commerce information. The spot costs of gold within the world market has risen round 60% within the final 5 years.
The sharp rise in imports of valuables was additionally seen within the newest print of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for July-September. Import of valuables — belongings with retailer worth reminiscent of artistic endeavors, valuable metals, and jewelry –stood at Rs 1.19 lakh crore in July-September this yr, the best in any quarter within the GDP (base yr 2011-12 sequence). It was Rs 42,253 crore in Q2 final yr and Rs 44,242 crore in Q2 2019-20.
A Euromonitor report on luxurious items in 2021 famous that after drastic declines throughout 2020 throughout the market, in keeping with restrictions and restricted mobility in response to the pandemic, luxurious items in India skilled a restoration in 2021, pushed primarily by enhancing demand through the second half of the yr.
Limited alternatives for worldwide journey might have diverted a few of demand to native luxurious retailers.

The gold and jewelry section, too, noticed important development within the run-up to the festivals and wedding ceremony season in direction of the latter a part of 2021.
In an earnings name performed on November 12, 2021, Saurav Banerjee, chief monetary officer of Mumbai-based retail jewelry chain Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri stated, “We have witnessed…completely different kind of scenario from what it was three, four months ago. Customers have been coming back in absolute hordes. I would say there has been a huge demand, which has been generated during the entire stretch of period between Dussehra or Durga Puja up to Dhanteras and Diwali. We have seen the revenue generation very similar to what it was in 2019-20…So, we have seen those kind of numbers coming back and which is very encouraging for us”.