Highrise bounty for Gurgaon

The national capital's satellite township of Gurgaon, a city of malls and commercial skyscrapers , is seeing a growing trend of highrise residential apartments marking its skyline. As much as 60% of the total population residing in the 57 sectors of Gurgaon lives in these highrise societies built by private developers likeDLF, Unitech, Emaar MGF, among several others.

Most of these colonies can been seen on the MG Road, on the way from DLF Phase I towards Sector 56 on Golf Course Road, on Sohna Road (from Rajiv Chowk towards Badshahpur village) and a few around the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway like the Raheja's Atlantis. The trend is gradually shifting from individual plots to gated colonies, say experts , who add that more such residential highrises will come up in new sectors under the Master Plan 2025 (still to be notified).

The new draft development plan-2025 of Gurgaon-Manesar Urban Complex will cater to the needs of a projected population of 39.7 lakh with more open spaces compared to the earlier notified plan of 2021, which was planned for a population of 37 lakh, says the deputy commissioner of Gurgaon, Rajender Kataria.

He adds that under the new plan, the area covered has increased from 37,069 hectares to 37,314 hectares, of which 15,009 hectares has been reserved for residential purposes. Earlier, the area earmarked for residential sector was 14,930 hectares.

Experts believe that the number of highrise societies will see a spike in the new sectors, from 58 to 115, for which land is being acquired in three phases.

This, according to market watchers , is because the land prices are at an all time high and affordability is of prime concern, especially when it comes to the middle-income groups. Individual homes have issues concerning security, maintenance and cost of construction on plots, which are many times higher compared to owning an apartment. Also, under the present day scenario , a highrise offers a wider range of options to a buyer - from mid-income housing projects to a croreplus apartments and luxury apartments.

Out of 12 projects announced in the new sectors, nine are residential highrise apartments while only three are individual plots and villas, according to the latest data available on 99acres.com, a property website.

Individual villas in these projects are 3/4/7 BHK and have a price range between Rs 1.75 and Rs 3.05 crore for areas ranging from 2,500 sq ft to 5,889 sq ft, depending on the location of the project. On the other hand, residential apartments of 2/3/4 BHK projects with average areas between 1,600 sq ft and 2,200 sq ft are priced in the range of Rs 50 to Rs 70 lakh.

The only plotted colony which was recently announced was in Sector 73, by a private developer. It seems some time away before Gurgaon sees more plots floated by HUDA with the growing land rates and security still a major concern.

"The trend is towards condominiums for a better lifestyle like gated colony, 24x7 power backup, recreational facilities. Land is costly, so when it is divided into several units (as in a highrise) it corrects the exorbitant rates," says Sanjay Sharma of a private realty portal.

However, there is still hope for you to own a plot and build your dream home. According to officials, once the land acquisition process for major roads and other basic infrastructure is in place, and the Haryana Urban Development Au t h o r i t y (HUDA) demarcates the sectors, as many as 14,000 plots may be made available in these sectors in the future.


QUICK BITES

Existing: 57 sectors

Number of plots in Gurgaon: 1,10,000

Number of ready or almost ready private builder flats: 41,500 (approximate). The number of private builder flats quoted is the ones that are ready or should be ready in the next 12 to 18 months. Of the 41,500 flats, nearly 6,000 flats are expected to be ready within 12-18 months

Number of society flats: 19,000 (approximate). Society flats are ones that are generally on 0.5 or 1 acre. Flats in areas like sectors: 56, 57, 43, 52, 47, etc