In view of the farmers agitation in Greater Noida, the surface transport ministry is learnt to have taken a u-turn from its earlier stand of facilitating land acquisition for both infrastructure development and real estate projects.
Buying land can be a time-consuming and expensive affair. Not only can the initial phase of buying it be quite complicated, but the cost involved in maintaining a purchased plot can also be quite high.
I am today seriously wondering whether all the celebrating and self-congratulating developers have indeed got “Exclusive” draft of the policy of land acquisition in Kashmir? Does it include construction facing Dal Lake of Srinagar that is Green Belt? Have they done their business calculations and cost & benefit analysis over there? There are more questions than what the builders could answer at this point of time. But what could be vouchsafed is the fact that all these euphoric overtones are premature. None of the industry voices from the matured sectors with more potential to pull off in the State have displayed this kind of immaturity.
The Indians seem to be quite aware of the challenges of mass housing, as is visible with nearly half of the respondent, 48 per cent questioning when land acquisition is going to be tougher how housing for all will be a reality.
No other residential micro market of India has arguably weathered as many challenges and controversies as Noida Extension. Its inception as a separate zone, other than Noida & Greater Noida, did lend credence to conspiracy theories against the farmers that culminated into land acquisition litigation. Since then it has been a sordid saga of project delivery uncertainties and homebuyers endless wait; not to speak of the additional charges levied as against the compensation amount hiked to the farmers.
Track2Realty: The year 2014 has been quite fruitful for the real estate sector in terms of business sentiment, although the real effect of many of the policies and amendments announced in 2014 will take effect only in 2015. Starting from Union Budget FY2014-15, where affordable housing was considered on par with infrastructure, to relaxation of rigidities in the Land Acquisition and Real Estate Regulatory Bill, India’s new Prime Minister has been offering the India real estate sector consistent doses of energy.
Track2Realty Exclusive: India has traditionally been a reluctant urbaniser and the developers have been even more reluctant to take the roads less travelled. For long it is the government agencies that have been catalyst to land acquisition and hand it over to the developers. Now that the Land Acquisition Bill is set to change the entire ballgame, Track2Realty wonders whether it is time to take a few case studies where a developer has dared to opt for ‘Destination Development’. Though such cases have been few and far between, the road ahead indicates even lesser first movers in the ring.
Track2Realty: With economy witnessing a downturn, interest rates and inflation reaching all-time highs, 2013 has been one of the most eventful years for Real Estate in India. While introduction of Real Estate Regulatory Bill and Land Acquisitions Bills in the Parliament was positive for the real estate industry, end users sitting on the fence expecting a fall in prices lead to a contraction of demand in the past few quarters.
Track2Realty Exclusive: As the country faces problems over land acquisition, events around the issue have been tarnishing the image of India’s built environment. Across sectors — real estate, infrastructure and construction events have not been conducive enough to create a good environment for investments. In addition, fragmentation and irregularities within the market, instances of fly-by-night-operators duping the consumers, an absence of regulation over transactions and developers have given a bad name to the environment.
Ravi Sinha: All said and done, land acquisition bill is going to be a reality. What are the issues that make you so critical of it? Is it just the fresh cost of acquisition?