If you visit Sector 76 (an upcoming area) in Noida on a weekend, you will recall a scene from the Boman Irani-starrer, Khosla Ka Ghosla — real estate brokers in small makeshift offices camping on the road, with fenced plots filling the backdrop. A drive down on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway offers a similar view.
Noida-Greater Noida is fast emerging as a hub for affordable homes. Shakti Nath, CMD of the Logix Group, feels Noida will see strong growth for the next couple of years. ‘‘There’s a strong demand for mid-segment homes (Rs 40-50 lakh). People want international-class living and yet prices which are affordable,’’ said Nath.
No wonder, Noida has seen a flurry of activity in the last six months. Go through ads in newspapers and you will find three out of five projects are located in this area. A builder estimates that over 50 projects could add 1,20,000 flats in the next five years.
The scale of activity can be gauged by the fact that local authorities have sold nearly 1,000 acres in Noida and Greater Noida in the last one year, estimate builders. Nearly 300 acres have been sold in Sectors 76, 78, and 119, around 200 acres on the expressway and nearly 550 acres have been sold in Noida Extension/Greater Noida.
The activity is spurred by recovery in the market. As developers saw signs of recovery, they started hurrying up their development: the Yamuna Expressway, for instance, would be completed by 2011, two years ahead of schedule.
‘‘Developers had bought the land. With the improvement in demand, they are exercising their options to build. They are trying to cash in on the latent demand by building fast,’’ said Kunal Banerji, executive director, TDI Infrastructure.
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Noida has some advantages. “It offers good infrastructure and easy connectivity with Delhi, while prices are much cheaper than Gurgaon, Delhi’s preferred satellite till now,’’ said Logix Group’s Nath.
Its infrastructure has kept pace with growth. ‘‘It’s well-planned. The infrastructure (like the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway) was developed by the local government. Physically, it is closer to Delhi. You can access it from Central Delhi or South Delhi. With supply coming up at affordable prices, it is bound to attract lot of people,’’ said Anshuman Magazine, CEO, CB Richard Ellis India.
Noida-Greater Noida also offers homes across the price range: 1-bedroom units from Rs 9.5 lakh, homes for Rs 15-22 lakh in Noida Extension to mid-segment homes for Rs 30-50 lakh. Prices range from Rs 2,500-3,000 per sq ft in Noida to Rs 1,500-1,600 in Noida Extension/Greater Noida. There are a few luxury projects starting at Rs 1.3 crore.
There’s one more characteristic which is fuelling the recent boom. ‘‘Unlike Gurgaon, it is largely an end-user market. Hence, it has always been in a different price segment,’’ said Shipra Group CFO Vijay Kumar. Builders also speak highly of the local authority, which changes the land-use (from agriculture to residential) before allotting these.
Analysts, however, are worried that the exuberance could create over-supply and depress prices when customers come to take deliveries. ‘‘There are lots of projects coming up in the area. These could create a glut. When investors want to offload, they may start undercutting and prices could take a beating,’’ warned TDI’s Banerji.