The realty sector has taken a beating as a whole in Anantapur district on account of several factors working against the sector, eventually driving away not just investors and buyers in the filed but also the general public and the workers dependant on the sector.
Buying and selling of land has seen a consistent decline since the last six years on account of reduced business revenues across the district which had been facing drought situation continuously. This has in turn affected the construction sector including that of public sector housing driving away labour from the sector to Bengaluru.
The land prices, however, remained on the higher side in spite of the fact that there is a significant decline in the number of transactions relating to selling and reselling of the land. “One of the contributing factors to the reduced interest of buyers and investors in purchasing lands in the district is the high prices in relation to the benefits it has to offer.
Industries cannot be easily set up here as there is acute shortage of water while houses cannot be built on time, saving money and interest payments to investors, due to the ‘ill-conceived’ sand policy which has made availability of quality sand almost negligible,” said Puli Prabhakar, a builder from Anantapur.
The precarious situation is giving the district officials the jitters, in the form of either non-availability of sand or availability of high priced sand. The high price is attributed to the huge transportation cost as sand reaches are more than 100 – 150 km away from the construction sites. The available sand nearby does not meet the quality standards.
“Unless the sand policy is revised and quality sand is made available at earlier prices, e can’t go ahead with the construction activities and labourers will continue to migrate to other cities,” said Sudhakar, another builder from the town.
(Reporting by
V.K. Rakesh Reddy)
