Is the wait over?

Tribune Real Estate Bureau

Ghaziabad, in western Uttar Pradesh, was once listed among the ‘Ten Most Dynamic Cities’ of the world. This was in 2006, when Newsweek included the region in a list that also had Las Vegas, London and Moscow. Since then, Ghaziabad has weathered many challenges, on its route to emerging as an important urban centre.

While very few people have doubts over the potential of the city to emerge as an economic hub, the only stumbling block seems to be confidence in the market. Nevertheless, Ghaziabad continued to attract attention, even in the wake of the global slowdown. The main reason, is that the region has a mix of properties, catering to every segment.

Demand drivers

As a real estate destination Ghaziabad has relatively lesser inventory issues and faster delivery of projects. At a time, when the property markets across Delhi-NCR are softening, Ghaziabad seems to be defying the trend. While it may not match Gurgaon or Noida, in terms of infrastructure, it remains a safe market to invest and earn future appreciation. 

Ghaziabad also managed to avoid the land acquisition issues that plagued other markets of Delhi-NCR, as there has been no government land acquisition in this region. As a result investors seem to prefer Ghaziabad over the other saturated markets in the NCR.

The city is now witnessing a makeover, with malls and a golf course being developed. Although there is a lot of scope for further infrastructure development, it still fares better than some of the costlier markets in the region. 

Commenting on the city, Anurag Jhanwar, Business head (Consulting and Data Insights), PropTiger.com and Makaan.com, said "The recent addition of Ghaziabad to the list of Smart cities will lead to better quality of living for residents of the city. The focus on augmenting and creating robust infrastructure, better transportation network and quality social infrastructure islikely to improve the market sentiment and hence better demand for the city in medium to long term long.”

It is common to compare the growth of real estate development and price appreciation in Ghaziabad with that in Gurugram. While Haryana went all out to cash in on the locational advantage that Gurugram had and established it as the Millenium City nd hub of IT sector growth, UP government’s lackadaisical attitude proved to be the bane of Ghaziabad which could not shed the “poor cousin” tag in spite of an equally good locational advantage. Gurgaon flourished, in the wake of crumbling physical infrastructure in South Delhi. In a similar fashion Ghaziabad’s time seems to have  come, with the property markets of adjoining areas, including East Delhi, being unable to cope with the pressure on its infrastructure.

The residential real estate market in Ghaziabad is developing primarily along NH-24 and NH-58. The upcoming locations along the two national highways include Raj Nagar Extension, Crossings Republik, Lal Kuan and Pratap Vihar. “These localities together contributed 65 and 66 per cent, respectively to the total sales and launches witnessed in the city and during the past 12 months”, says Jhanwar.

Demand-supply equation

The moot question, is whether Ghaziabad will really emerge as a global city. Facts seem to be encouraging. According to a study by TracktoRealty the demand in some pockets of Ghaziabad has been steady. In areas like Vaishali, Vasundhara or Indirapuram, ready-to-move inventory is less than 15 per cent. The projects in these areas, mostly offer mid-size and premium housing units. Moreover, there is a healthy balance between demand and supply, which is commendable, at a time when the Delhi-NCR market is sitting on an inventory surplus of nearly two years.

The city’s inventory has apartments, builder floors as well as plotted developments. While the prices in all these segments have been affected by the slowdown, the drop has not been very significant as the city already had rationalised pricing. In the apartment segment In spite of the slow sale volumes in recent past the micro-markets of Sahibabad, Shastri Nagar, Bhopura, Mohan Nagar and Kaushambi beat the slowdown blues with 1%-7% rise in the values of residential apartments QoQ in July-Sept 2016.

The average prices of builder floors in Ghaziabad dropped nominally in Jul-Sep 2016, after witnessing a stagnant market in the quarter ending June 2016.

Ankur Vihar and Surya Nagar emerged as the top grossers, each witnessing a capital rise of 2%. While the appreciation in Ankur Vihar can be attributed to an artificial increase in ‘ask’ prices, growth in Surya Nagar is a resultant of a hike in circle rates.

The mounting capital graph of land parcels in Ghaziabad exhibited the popularity of residential plots over apartments and builder floors. This property type reported an uptrend of 2% in Jul-Sep 2016, after seeing an appreciation of 5% in Apr-Jun 2016.

Values in residential hubs across NH 58 and NH 91 rose by 4%-5%, QoQ, in anticipation to infrastructure development aimed at reducing traffic gluts.

The expansion of the Delhi Metro in and around Ghaziabad, is also prompting the working middle class to settle in these locations. Sandeep Yash, a local broker, feels that buyers in the region are spoilt for choice. Yash maintains that Ghaziabad is not just one market, but many micro markets within the district. “If there are properties in the price range of Rs 7,000 per sq ft in Indirapuram, there are also properties below Rs 3,000 per sq ft in Raj Nagar Extension. Today, Ghaziabad, for all practical purposes, starts from Delhi border and is worth habitation with some of the most attractive properties till Lal Kuan region,” he concludes.

— With inputs fromHousing.com/News