An Explainer: Social Infrastructure

As the adage goes, 'man is a social animal' who cannot live in seclusion. This also applies to all development activities, and real estate is no exception. This is the reason why the robustness of social infrastructure has decided the fate of property locations across the world. In fact, social infrastructure as a physical asset also has a huge impact on the popularity of properties in an area. The better is the social infrastructure, the more popular are the properties there. Therefore, even a premium housing society would be less likely to find takers if it is constructed in a locality with poor social infrastructure.

Now, what falls under social infrastructure? Typically, community places form the social infrastructure of a locality. These include markets, shopping centres, educational institutes, health care centres, banking provisions and recreational places. Most of us would prefer to live in a house that gives an easy access to all these places and makes the day-to-day life simpler.

Developer brochures often specify that their projects offer well-developed social infrastructure and cite this as their unique selling point. Generally, the prices of properties offering relatively good social infrastructure are higher.