Flat fiasco

Deepkamal Kaur

While the real estate market in the whole state has been through one of its worst years in this decade, in Jalandhar the residential apartment schemes seem to have been hit the most. The high-end luxury apartments do not seem to have found favour with Jalandhar residents as the various schemes of the sort planned in the past two-three years have fallen flat.

Despite having adopted enough of marketing strategies, not just the private builders, even PUDA and Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) authorities, which had thought of making it big by floating super deluxe flats, have had to ultimately shelve their plans. The targeted NRI community from the region showed no interest in such plans despite off-shore publicity done by the government officials.

The 22-storey Splendid Heights scheme launched by the PUDA in the heart of the city got only 67 applicants for a total of 490 3BHK and 4 BHK flats and months after allotment, the authorities have now cancelled the scheme finding it non-feasible to go ahead.

The prices for the two categories had been kept at Rs 92 lakh and Rs 72 lakh, respectively.

Likewise, there were only 19 applicants for 120 super deluxe flats of JIT in the posh Surya Enclave area even after having invited applications in two rounds and the authorities are mulling construction of only one of the six towers of flats that were initially planned for the time being.

Going by the trends, PUDA has recently launched a freehold, small to medium size residential plot scheme at Sheikhe Pind on Old Hoshiarpur Road. Out of a total of 112 plots, 44 are of 200 sq yd, 41 of 125 sq yd, 11 of 150 sq yd and 16 of 100 sq yd area. The price of the plots has been kept at 12,500 per sq yd. While the scheme opened about a month ago, officials are now contemplating to get it extended.

Even the local builders have somewhat changed their strategy to offer a mix of all category of flats in their housing schemes. The city-based Hamilton group has come up with a Hamilton Mayfair Residency Scheme on 66-feet road leading to Nakodar that offers 1 BHK flats for Rs 15.62 lakh, 2 BHK flats for Rs 29.87 lakh and so on. The attraction of the scheme is a landmark 22-storey tower at the site being called Burj Hamilton, which will house 5 BHK apartments for nearly Rs 90 lakh each.

Says Sharad Aggarwal of the Hamilton group, “We are catering to all segments of buyers, including the upper middle class, by offering high quality specifications. A single professional has an option to go in for 1 BHK flat. The lifestyle apartments in the Burj have a provision of a swimming pool, a gym at a 22-feet height and a valet parking giving all feelings of a five star hotel. We have a provision of about 400 flats of which we have already sold out 200 in the first phase.”

He is hopeful of getting a good response in spite of the negative response garnered by other such projects in the city so far. “We are hopeful of getting a good response, especially from the NRIs as they can feel a more secure environment here with all maintenance provisions too. Our unique architecture of course will be an added attraction”, he said.

A 17-floor housing project Jalandhar Heights-1 and 2 by another local group AGI Infra is currently under-construction in about 44 acre of land on the same road. Sukhdev Singh, the builder, said that about 1,100 flats were being planned in both the schemes of which 200 had been completed and sold off last year and the possession of another 200 flats would be handed over by this month.

The builder tried another experiment by floating shares of his company getting 25 per cent of the public share in the project. He claimed that he bagged an award from the Bombay Stock Exchange, being one of the top five companies among the SMEs. Having already made a name in constructing buildings for universities and hospitals in the region, the builder is now proceeding with another landmark commercial complex on Bhagwan Parshuram Marg and Holiday Inn Hotel on Jalandhar-Phagwara road.

Not enough takers

Even as the commercial properties did not see any boom this year, the sales of affordable residential apartments got some genuine buyers raising some hope for the builders and motivating them to come up with new multi-storey flats schemes in the peripheral areas of the city.

But the market has failed to gain any momentum as Rajan Chopra, a local builder, claims, “There have been buyers this year but the boost that comes with the pitching in of the financiers and sudden circulation of flow of investments failed to happen even this year”.

There were also not enough of takers for the commercial buildings even on rental basis. The Ansal Plaza on Jalandhar-Phagwara road remains unoccupied and so were most of the other such buildings even in the best locations of the city.

Amarjot Singh Samra, who had only been into constructing and letting out commercial buildings, said, “Things were not looking good and so we did not venture out into any new project in the entire year. Our office building at BMC Chowk too isn’t getting much response as the tenants have been just coming and leaving after a few months.”

Sukhdev Singh, who is constructing AGI Business Centre just next to bus stand on Garha Road, shares, “No doubt the response to commercial properties is slow but if a builder provides quality construction, makes delivery in time and even offers prompt post-delivery services, the response is better. We are offering office space to banks and companies on rent to the tune of Rs 150 per sq ft on ground floor, Rs 80, 70 and 60 per sq ft on the first, second and third floors, respectively”.

Prabhpal Pannu, a realtor, quips, “The deals that are taking place are only between the buyer and seller. The role of investors has almost become nil and it is really challenging sustaining in such an environment. Even the NRIs who were earlier buying a property in one year and selling it off three to four years later have been only selling off their remnant properties, including agricultural land. The going is really getting very difficult”.