Inertness that prevailed in realty sector a couple of years ago got a boost with the bifurcation of State. Uncertainty over the location of the new capital is fuelling speculation in the real estate sector.
Repeated assertion by Ministers that the new capital would be between Vijayawada and Guntur has led to sky rocketing land price and this has, in turn, scared away potential investors. The State government has issued an unofficial diktat clamping restrictions on land registrations to end speculations.
An acre of land abutting the NH-5 which hitherto was valued at Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 5 crore is now quoted at Rs.10 crore. Greater Vijayawada Builder’s Association president Gadde Rajling said land rates are so high that the quoted price of a square yard of land is Rs. 1 lakh in Vijayawada city limits. It was just Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 18,000 a sq yard till 2011. “The sad part of the development is that affordable housing is not in the reach of middle class,” he adds.
On the outskirts of Ongole, a cent of land, which used to cost Rs. 1 lakh a few months ago, is now priced at Rs. 2.50 lakh. In Vizianagaram town, land value around JNTU (K) area ranges between Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 30 lakh an acre and the lands adjacent to NH-49 cost from Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 1 crore an acre.
According to CREDAI Vizianagarm district general secretary K. Subhash Chandrabose, land value would go up further in the next three to four years as a majority of the local investors are now interested in investing between Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram in view of travel time.
Lands abutting villages on the main road like Papanaidupet, Gajulamandyam, and Yelamandyam around Renigunta airport near Tirupati cost Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 2.75 crore an acre. With the announcement of IIT, IISER and a Central University for Tirupati, prices are expected to rise by 10 per cent more”, feels Ellanti Rushikesh Naidu, managing director of RKN Homes and Developers, Tirupati.
In contrast, land and property rates in Anantapur district remained immune to such developments as also the Kadapa district where a similar situation exists. The slow pace of growth of realty rates in Anantapur is attributed to the fact that the district had not found favour for setting up of major Central institutions nor it is going to be closer to new capital, wherever it may come.
Real estate dealers in Kadapa district had a heyday as bigwigs purchased lands at whopping prices some time ago. “Fearing blockage of investments, land-holders are on the look-out for buyers but there are no takers,” says real estate dealer K. Suryanarayana of Kadapa.
(With inputs from P. Samuel Jonathan, V. Chalapathi Rao, M.V. Subrahmanyam, V.K. Rakesh Reddy, S. Murali and A.D. Rangarajan)
