Monetise railway land for transit-oriented development: JLL

The Railways should monetise its land parcels at urban centres to encourage transit-oriented development and improve living standards, realty consultant JLL India said in its wish-list for the rail budget.
The consultant defines transit-oriented development (TOD) as a mixed-use residential and commercial area designed to maximise access to public transport. TOD incorporates features to encourage transit ridership.
"With the rail budget coming up, the sheer number of land parcels held by the Indian Railways across the country makes this entity an important stakeholder in transit-oriented development," JLL India Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri said in a report.
"This budget, we expect the railway minister to look at monetising railways' land parcels in urban areas through TOD - in order to boost cities' liveability quotient and modernisation of their skylines."

A TOD neighbourhood typically has a centre with a transit (train/metro) station or stop and residential as well as commercial development around it. TOD interventions aim to significantly shift the mode share away from private motorised vehicles to public transport.
Given the progress of work on infrastructure projects in India, JLL said the TOD plans should be rolled out across cities soon so that the infrastructure is in place by 2020-25.

The urban infrastructure would become a key area of focus for the government as Indian cities would see more migration from rural areas, it added.
JLL said Delhi is the first Indian city to move towards the TOD concept.

"TOD is also a priority area for Mumbai and was mentioned in its new development plan (DP) 2034 (currently in a draft format and undergoing several revisions). Vashi and CBD Belapur were the first TOD projects in Navi Mumbai, with Seawoods following suit in recent years," the report said.
"The GST has ushered in a wave of reforms that will
significantly impact the cost of storing inventory. The USD 90-billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is a key project that is expected to boost manufacturing and logistics facilities in the north-west region of the country," he said.
The report credited the rising demand for the domestic realty market to the availability of good-quality land.

It can be noted that the rising prominence of Bengaluru and Mumbai can be gauged from the recent growth of private equity investments into the sector that rose 55 per cent to USD 3.96 billion.
Investment prospects show a strong shift away from last year's favourites, which featured core markets in Japan and Australia, in favour of emerging-market destinations, with Bengaluru and Mumbai topping the list which also includes Vietnam and the Philippines, says the report.
Other major survey findings include steep decline in the popularity of gateway cities (except Shanghai). In particular, Singapore has sunk to near the bottom of the ranking as it struggles with overcapacity, falling demand and slump in its residential sector.

"This overarching shift reflects the difficulty in sourcing core assets in an environment where owners have few other places to invest their capital if they sell, together with the growing urgency of investors' 'quest for yield' as returns are squeezed ever lower," it said.
John Fitzgerald, Chief Executive of ULI Asia-Pacific, said: "The survey shows investors are on 'a quest for yield' as opposed to last year's results which could be seen as a 'flight to safety'. This is a testament to how fast economic conditions in India have improved, allowing Bangalore and Mumbai to climb from near the bottom to top the rankings in just a few years.