Track2Realty Exclusive: Property markets across the country have shoot up in capital and rental values in tandem with the infrastructure development. Infrastructure development and better connectivity are two key elements behind property prices going up. Navi Mumbai, however, presents a different picture with arguably the best infrastructure development and connectivity in Mumbai.
It is a city within the city that has been witness to the holistic growth but is still a very realistic market. It has pockets of sellers’ market where the prices have shoot up substantially in the last few years, yet it has the pockets of affordable property where the average prices are below Rs. 12000 per sq feet.
It raises a fundamental question that if infrastructure is the catalytic force behind the appreciation of property market, how come Navi Mumbai has remained a safe territory with no unreasonable speculation in this market. It is not that the property prices have not appreciated in this satellite township, but the pace of appreciation has been realistic because the demand has mostly been coming from the end users.
And hence, while it would not be safe to assume that Navi Mumbai has been a buyers’ market; it has nevertheless been a realistic market. In other words, it has been an equal opportunity market.
On the eve of Akshay Tritiya when people are looking for a location with decent budget and high appreciation potential, all eyes are shifting to Navi Mumbai. The best part of the property market of Navi Mumbai is the fact that it has a healthy mix of residential and commercial property. Navi Mumbai, being a satellite town with all the infrastructure also provides the feasibility of working close to the residential areas. This is something that very few locations in Mumbai can provide.
Analysts tracking the market in Navi Mumbai maintain that the city has seen massive infrastructure development in the past one decade. It is one of the planned city adjoining to Mumbai developed by City and Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. Navi Mumbai has become a unique project by virtue of the pattern of development, housing, social and physical infrastructure, method of finance and sustainable futuristic planning, that has got the city a reputation of being a Super City and one of the largest planned city.
This is a realistic market also because unlike other destinations which saw an oversupply of luxury projects that led to the artificial appreciation of the market in general, in Navi Mumbai even though there are pockets of affluence the location in general has not gone beyond the reach of an average home buyer of Mumbai. The appreciation is very much in sync with the overall market realities and there has actually been a healthy transaction momentum even during the otherwise slowdown in the Mumbai property market.
Most important is the locational vantage point of Navi Mumbai as Manju Yagnik, Vice Chairperson of Nahar Group says connected to Mumbai, Pune and Thane, the city enjoys good infrastructure. According to her, Navi Mumbai is still a realistic market as far as home buyers are concerned. Considering the major upcoming projects around the city, the future of the real estate market looks very bright from the home buyers’ perspective.
“It is a fact that the property prices have appreciated less in Navi Mumbai than Mumbai. However, comparing price appreciation between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai may not be a good idea. Mumbai is an established market whereas Navi Mumbai is a new emerging market. The major infrastructure projects such as additional airport and Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link for Navi Mumbai were widely discussed in the media for wrong reasons in the recent past affecting the real estate price appreciation in Navi Mumbai and surrounding region,” says Yagnik.
Many believe as and when the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link takes off Navi Mumbai will command a premium like no other location of Mumbai. It has all the ingredient of a sustainable satellite living and the sea link will only make its connectivity an icing on the cake of Navi Mumbai’s property market and its overall economic vibrancy.
Of course, there are developers who find reasons to maintain that the growth direction of Navi Mumbai has not been as desired. For example, Rajesh Vardhan, Managing Director, Vardhman Group has a different take when he says that with the current infrastructure the Navi Mumbai market is good, but not realistic in some pockets and hence it has to be seen in totality. He says there are some areas where prices have shot up substantially are overpriced. The way land prices have raised during this slump period, is also a concern. The auction done by CIDCO with their mind boggling high prices does send a contradictory signal. And hence, we have to see the reality of market & the affordability of consumer.
“Ultimately for any development if it goes beyond the consumers’ budget & reach it will have an impact. Navi Mumbai was designed to shift the load from Mumbai, and affordability was of important concern and Navi Mumbai has been developed to become a dream destination within an affordability segment. Navi Mumbai prices have appreciated substantially and it is not true that as compared to Mumbai they have not appreciated. If we compare the prices as compared to Thane or Mira Road, they have appreciated even better than these markets,” says Vardhan.
Amit Kulkarni, Director of Varasiddhi Infrastructure, however, asserts that it was milestone infrastructure which put Navi Mumbai on growth path. According to him, this has happened post connectivity via railways in early 90s. “Overall Navi Mumbai being planned city has good infrastructure which is planned to take future population growth. Good combination of urban utilities is evident in most of the suburbs of Navi Mumbai. Faster and scenic connectivity like Palm beach road has given the Area high end market status,” he says.
In a nutshell, at a time when Mumbai was already developed and land parcels available for development were getting exhausted, Navi Mumbai has shaped up as a truly planned satellite city with realistic living options. The prices may have appreciated in these markets, yet the city provides much better living option than Mumbai and at a much reasonable rates. It can still be termed as an equal opportunity market; somewhere the feasibility of living close to work place also exists.
