A Buyer's Dilemma – Where to buy Ready-to-Move-in Units in Gurgaon?

Gurgaon, being one of the key NCR cities has attracted headquarters of multiple multinational and national companies especially in FMCG, Banking, Telecom, IT/BPO industry. This migration led to increased demand for housing in Gurgaon. In past few years the prices in Gurgaon has appreciated so fast that most of the ready to move in housing has become unaffordable for middle class. Given uncertainty in completion time of new projects, end users prefer to invest only in the last stages of new projects where handover is imminent. Though Gurgaon has sufficient inventory of such units, yet many ready-for-possession projects still remain unoccupied/unsold. What is the reason behind this?

Let's take a look at the real estate market of Gurgaon by dividing it into three important sections- Sohna Road, New Gurgaon and Dwarka Expressway.

Sohna Road

Sohna Road is one of the prime residential localities in Gurgaon. The area offers a whole lot of residential properties in the form of apartments, villas and plotted developments. With excellent connectivity to the Golf Course Extension Road and the National Highway 8, the locality enjoys good physical infrastructure. Adequate social facilities are also available. Renowned builders like Tulip Infratech, CHD Developers ,  BPTP , Unitech etc. offer attractive ready-to-move-in options in the price range of Rs 6500 per sq ft to Rs 10,000 per sq ft. Tulip Ivory (Sec 70), BPTP Park Prime (Sec 66) and CHD Avenue 71 (Sec 71) are some such projects. Then a question arises “why most of the units in these projects are yet unoccupied?” Answer to this question is that all of them lack last mile connectivity making it very difficult to reach the actual property location, thus making the buyers averse about buying a unit in the projects.

New Gurgaon

New Gurgaon is a recently developed real estate belt situated between old Gurgaon and Manesar and consists of Sector 102-113 and sector 76 to 95. Ready-to-move-in properties in the area are available in Vatika Floors (Sec 82), Orris Carnation Residency (Sec 85), DLF New Town Heights (Sec 90) and Vipul Lavanya (Sec 81). These properties come in the price range of Rs 3,750 per sq ft to Rs 5,900 per sq ft. Though attractively priced, these are still not generating enough end user interest. The reason turns out to be Kherki Dhaula toll which will be a hassle for buyers on daily basis as well as lack of social infrastructure – schools, hospitals, shopping complexes, public transport etc.

Dwarka Expressway

A few years back Dwarka Expressway was tipped as a high potential realty market. The real estate majors anticipated that Dwarka-Gurgaon Expressway will serve as an important link between Delhi and Gurgaon attracting more and more end users to the area. Many ready-to-move-in units are offered by well-known builders like Raheja Developers , BPTP, and Ramprastha Group. The projects are available in the price range of around Rs 5,500 per sq ft to Rs 8,000 per sq ft. Raheja Atharva (Sec 109), BPTP Park Serene (Sec 37 D) and Ramprastha Atrium (Sec 37 D) are some such projects.

However, the infrastructure development did not go as planned. And, the buyers do not want to have houses in the areas that do not provide good connectivity options and social infrastructure. Property experts suggested that the real estate prices in the area experienced steep rise but if the infra development does not pick up; the market is going to crash.

Hence, a buyer is better paying rent in one of the developed areas rather buy a house in one of the developing areas. Situation can be only salvaged if Haryana Government focuses on developing necessary infrastructure to make these houses livable.