TIME FOR NCR TO SHINE

Experts predict that the coming decade will belong to the National Capital Region. The new decade will see rise of new development centres in this region, Prabhakar Sinha
As the economy is likely to maintain a growth of around 8% in the coming decade, it will witness a sustained growth in the real estate sector with affordable housing continuing to be in focus. The National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, in particular, will see a number of new destinations coming up. But, unlike the last decade when Delhi did not contribute much to the housing development, the new decade will witness a large number of housing projects being developed here.
At the same time, a number of townships will come in the NCR region to meet the demand for housing and commercial space. The last decade witnessed an unprecedented rise in the activities in the sector. Not only did construction activity increase substantially, the prices also went up manifold. The growth momentum was so strong that it could withstand the global financial crisis successfully, albeit with the help of the government's stimulus package. RBI's decision to reduce interest rates also helped in this regard. But, the main driving agent in the revival in the second half of 2009 was the developers' strategy in building affordable houses. In this, builders built two and three-bedroom apartments with lower specification at up to 40 percent lower prices than what they used to sell only a few months ago.
CMD of CB Richard Ellis, South Asia, Anshuman Magazine, says, "In 2010, we can expect to see some sustainability in the residential market as activity levels have improved. On the office market front, demand is expected to improve, although rentals are expected to remain flat in the medium term due to the forecasted surplus supply of office space." Samir Jasuja, CMD of PropEquity, a realty research firm, says that Delhi will emerge as the centre of planned development in the coming decade with the new Master Plan coming into effect soon. The huge land bank in Najafgarh in Southwest Delhi, Brijwasan and Chhattarpur in South Delhi, will be released under the new Master Plan of Delhi. Similarly, a large tract of land will also come up in the marketplace in North Delhi. He says that thousands of acres of land are likely to be released under the new Master Plan.
As 2000-2009 saw the development of areas like Indira Puram, Vaishali, Vasundhara and Crossings Republik, in the East of Delhi in Ghaziabad, Sector 44 and 93A & B in Noida and MG Road, Sushant Lok, Golf Course, and DLF Phase II, III and V in Gurgaon and Nahar Paar area in Faridabad. Many of these areas were unheard of, before 2000. Similarly, 2010-19 will see a hectic development of new areas like Noida-Greater Noida Exressway, Crossings Republik, Raj Nagar Extension on National Highway 58 in Ghaziabad, and Noida Sectors 34, 50, 45, 128 and 134 will emerge as the new development centres in the new decade. In Gurgaon, new areas that are likely to come up are Sohna Road, Golf Course Road Extn and Pataudi Road. Sonepat is also likely to emerge as a new destination for residential market.
Samir Jasuja says that under the new Gurgaon-Manesar Master Plan, around 1,50,000 residential units will be developed in the area. Out of this, around 10,000 are at the implementation stage by various developers. The rest will be developed in the coming years. Besides this, the introduction of the concept of 'township' will expedite the construction of residential units. The development of townships will allow private developers to share the onus of development of infrastructure. So far, only the government agencies used to develop infrastructure, which results in a slow pace of development. With this, the supply of housing units will get expedited.
The good news is that such a huge supply of housing units will stabilize prices. Global realty consultancy firm, Knight Frank, in its report on India's residential market says that given a general stability of markets around Delhi and the supply expected in this part of the NCR until 2011, it is reasonable to expect residential prices in Delhi to remain relatively stable or even increase, if demand in the region significantly increases due to better internal connectivity.
The report further says that several infrastructure initiatives around the NCR are expected to boost residential options through augmenting connectivity and decongesting traffic within certain locations. If consumers are attracted to small markets around the NCR due to better infrastructure, the subsequent decongestion of demand in the region could alleviate the upward pressure on prices in locations like Gurgaon and Noida, which are becoming increasingly attractive residential options. The 2010 Commonwealth Games have also played an important role in improving connectivity to different parts of the city through the Metro Rail.
Courtesy:- ET Realty dt:- 08-01-2010