Smaller but affordable

 

The negative sentiment prevailing in property market in Punjab for over two years may improve in the wake of Punjab Government’s proposal for relaxing norms of the Punjab Regional and Town and Development Act, 1995. 

Officials of the Department of Local Government, Punjab, after holding meeting with the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Board approved certain amendment in the Act in master plans of Punjab regarding population density, Floor Area Ratio (FAR), ground coverage and other norms.      

The main objective of the move is to implement the amended notification of the Department of Town and Country Planning is to uniform the density of population and make optimum use of the land apart from encouraging vertical growth. 

 

Catalyst for growth

 

The proposed notification will act as a catalyst for real estate growth in cities like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali, Bathinda, Phagwara, Moga, Pathankot and Hoshiarpur districts.

 With the final approval of the notification, now builders can construct 75 units/flats in one acre against 60 units/flats per acre according to the previous guidelines, claimed N.K Sharma, a realtor-turned-politician and Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Industry and Commerce), Punjab.

The final notification in this regard would be released soon.  The decision will not only speed up the real estate growth but the buyers will also benefit as they will be getting affordable houses, he said.

According to experts the change in norms will bring down the cost for homebuyers in the state. The cost of apartments will come down by over 25 per cent even though the cost of construction will remain almost same.  

The housing department of the state, however, is already following the plan and now the local bodies department, too, has adopted it to increase population density and to encourage vertical growth as per of the Master Plans (for the development) of these cities, claims, a senior officer in the department.  

 

Size vs price

 

Satish Jindal, CMD of Maya Garden, claimed that earlier roughly 60 flats of 1,452 sq ft built up area, each could be built an acre. The cost of the flat was between ~40 and ~45 lakh which was beyond the reach of middle class buyers. “Now with 75 flats coming up in one acre, the size has come down to almost 1,150 sq ft per flat and the cost will be between ~30 lakh and Rs 35 lakh which makes these houses affordable for a larger segment of buyers,” claimed Bharat Mittal, director of Sushma Buidtech Limited, Zirakpur. This move thus is going to bring the buyers who have been in the wait and watch mode for the past over 24 months to the realty market to finalise deals. 

Market watchers are of the view that the move is going to be beneficial for growing satellite towns like Zirakpur, Mohali, Kharar and other towns across the state where most of the new projects will be in the affordable segment.     

Sunil Bandha, director of Zirakpur-based ONS Builders and Promoters, also claimed that the decision will not only give a boost to the government’s move to provide affordable housing to end users, but also attract more customers thus generating more revenue for the state exchequer. 

The cut in prices once the projects conforming to the new norms are ready, however, is not without a catch. The built up area of the flats will be less in the new scheme of things. “Earlier when we had to accomodate 60 flats in one acre, there was no scope to reduce the size of a unit, but now with permission for 75 flats in an acre the size of a unit can be reduced by roughly 300 sq ft, so the price of units has gone down automatically”, says Rajesh Bhasin, a Zirakpur-based developer.   

R.K Mittal, a retired executive officer of the department of local government, Punjab, however, claimed that the government was adopting only two points (increase density and encouraging vertical growth) of the notification of the Department of Town and Country Planning in this regard.

The local government should have opted for the entire notification as it is or enforce the PUDA guidelines, he added.

 

Flip side

 

While the builders and buyers are going to make the most of the notification,  it is the residents who will face the heat of high density and vertical development of these cities.

 Neither the government nor the builders and developers have provided the promised facilities to the residents of various housing projects and societies across the state, complained Sandeep Maudgil, a resident of Chandigarh.

Moreover, the existing infrastructure that includes roads, streets, water supply, sewerage system and electricity in unable to bear the extra load if the population increases in these cities, he claimed.

Vijay Dutta, president of Joint Action Coordination committee, Zirakpur, is of the view that the notification is going to add to the woes of the residents as the state government has already failed to provide proper electricity, drinking water, roads and sewerage  for general public.

“The rise in density will add to traffic congestion on the roads, crime graph will go up, there will be requirement of more healthcare institutions, schools, community centres, commercial establishments and other basic civil amenities”, claimed Jagdev Sharma, a Chandigarh based businessman.

The government have to develop infrastructure to carry provide basic civic amenities, opined Pradeep Sankhyan, an executive residing in Silver City, a housing colony in Zirakpur.    

 “Strengthening the infrastructure base should have been the first step taken by the state government, before clearing decks for increase in density in urban areas. In the absence of proper civic amenities the basic motive of such a move will be defeated and soon we will be staring at urban slums in the state,” said Rotarian Bhupinder Singh Saini, a resident of Dera Bassi.