Track2Realty Exclusive: Noida seems to be on a highway of growth corridor and is fast emerging from the shadow of being poor cousin of NCR’s glorified market of Gurgaon. If the spate of luxury and other high-end launches are any indication, already Noida is in the process of an image makeover where the investors’ confidence is increasingly tilting in its favour. The price appreciation in the last over a year across the Delhi-NCR region suggests that Noida has been witness to the best ROI to the investors. The mismatch between primary market and secondary market, an indicator of economic bubble in general and property bubble in particular, is relatively lesser in Noida. This raises a fundamental question as to whether Noida is poised to be ‘The Market’ of Delhi-NCR in time to come.
Analysts maintain Noida with its better infrastructure has waited for long in the absence of MNCs interest level due to lack of proximity to an international airport. However, the fact that investors in the matured market of Gurgaon are exiting after scaling up to its peak level added to the crumbling infrastructure over there and potential of Noida to grow is tilting the interest level in this market and the recent luxury launches are only the indication that feasibility and viability of high-end projects is a reality in Noida now.
Noida is no more a mere destination of affordable housing rather the city is creating its own pockets of affluence with luxury residential launches and five star hospitality chains coming up as well. The Chairman of the three authorities that govern the extended region of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway, Rakesh Bahadur, recently said that till now Gurgaon was considered the costliest in Delhi-NCR despite the township lacking in terms of necessary infrastructure and facilities.
“Now, Gurgaon will have only one USP, which is close proximity to the airport. As builders are coming up with projects developed by world class agencies, in the next five years Noida will beat Gurgaon in all respects,” Bahadur said.
Sumit Bharana, Director, Era landmarks does not think Noida has been behind Gurgaon in terms of picking the luxury living. According to him, Noida has in fact quickly picked up pace in the luxury segment as it offers best amenities at affordable rates.
“Noida is emerging as one of the most progressive cities in India which means it is one of the highly invested regions of the country. Investments in real estate in Noida have been pouring in, in abundance in the past few years. A large part of these investments are done in luxury projects which has given a boom to the development of luxury segment projects in Noida,” says Bharana.
Sikka Group has recently launched a super luxury project Sikka Downtown. However, Piyush Sharma, VP, Marketing & Research, Sikka Group does not subscribe that Noida’s USP is just the super luxury projects. According to him, a given market can not be categorised into luxury or HNI driven, rather a real estate market should be seen as to whether it is catering to all the verticals-residential, commercial and hospitality. According to him, Noida has scaled up on these parameters.
“Noida has better infrastructure than Gurgaon added to the fact that Noida has not reached its peak or saturation point and hence it offers relatively higher returns. Of course, Noida is catering to all the verticals and it is an industrial hub where the component of residential projects since the Master Plan of 2001 has gone down from 49% to 37% whereas industrial zones have increased from 13% to 18%. There is presence of most of the corporate houses as they are also finding a desired destination with relatively much lesser price,” says Sharma.
Vishwanath Agrawal, CMD, Techman Buildwell does seem to agree with the premise when he says it is obvious from the fact that the numbers of world class projects are being launched by so many developers in last 3-4 years reflects that surely they are getting very good response from the buyers/investors.
“The destination Noida is definitely transforming into a hub for luxury projects. With the launching of various luxury projects by various builders/developers, it is very imminent that the demand of such projects is rising. The luxury real estate market has seen sustainable growth over the few years,” says Agrawal.
It is not just the luxury residential projects that promises to put Noida on a fast forward highway of growth, rather the number of hospitality projects and other commercial projects also suggest Noida is being seen as the next growth corridor of Delhi-NCR. After all, the region is all set to touch base with the proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) as well which itself can change the realty landscape of the region.
Premia Projects has launched a corporate city in Noida. Its CMD Tarun Shienh believes Noida has picked up a bit late due to the lack of quality commercial projects that could have given the city option of ‘Live, Work & Play’, a much desired USP of luxury destinations across the world.
“In last couple of years the Noida realty market has grown remarkably, so the luxury and ultra luxury segment are also growing. Yes I agree that Noida has picked up late as the market itself went down when its time finally came. Now it is on demand of high end luxury residential and commercial units. The market is on good pace and I expect some more growth in next few years,” says Shienh.
Today it can be vouchsafed that Noida has learnt from its initial trial & error and hence is today catering to all the verticals. Even though it emerged as an industrial hub the focus shifted on affordable housing in the initial days that slowed down its very objective. However, that is fast changing and today there is presence of most of the corporate houses as they are also finding a desired destination with relatively much lesser price. Property analysts maintain that in any given market the first flush of money comes from investors, say around 70 per cent vis-à-vis 30 per cent by the end-users, which eventually ends up the other way round. So, for investors Gurgaon is now a market to exit whereas Noida promises to emerge big and offer lucrative ROI.
