Why Noida Extension will no longer be affordable

The NCR Planning Board’s approval of the Greater Noida Authority’s master plan, which is a go-ahead for the projects in Noida Extension, is likely to favorably impact property prices in the region but not without a caveat.

Old flat buyers have threatened that they will not allow developers who have been randomly cancelling bookings of old buyers and demanding hiked rates from them,to book new units.

Members of Noida Extension Flat Owners Welfare Association (NEFOWA) on Sunday met at Greater Noida to discuss the cancellation of allotments by various developers at the Ajnara site in Greater Noida.

[caption id=“attachment_441530” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Apartments in Noida Extension are currently priced in the range of Rs 2,700-3 ,500 per square feet. AFP[/caption]

Even though Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) has instructed builders to take care of existing buyers and not to harass them, many builders have indirectly stated in newspapers that they would hike prices for existing buyers with the excuse that the cost of materials and labour have been increased.

More from Economy

Inflation likely to be a big focus area for budget 2024, say sources Explained: Will the Bank of Japan break tradition and raise interest rates?

The Noida Extension dream went sour when courts quashed land acquisition in Shahberi and Patwari villages, where 26,500 flats had been booked.

Says Pankaj Kapoor, MD at property research firm Lisas Foras, " The developers are bound to indulge in such practices of cancelling allotted flats or forcing old buyers to may the new rates. Due to the land row last year, proposals of hiking rates of these residential plots was stalled."

He explained that since the affected areas of the land row are better located than the periphery where construction was not stalled, it is but evident that builders will raise prices.

Apartments in Noida Extension are currently priced in the range of Rs 2,700-3 ,500 per square feet. Before the farmers’ stir began more than a year earlier, prices were in the range of Rs 1,800-2 ,000 per square feet. But now that farmers are eligible for higher compensation, builders are bound to raise prices, which will be passed on to customers too.

But NEFOWA has decided to fight against such actions at each and every level. “We cannot accept the price hike for the existing buyers at any cost. We will not agree to any of the excuses made by the builders”, NEFOWA general secretary Shweta Bharti told PTI.

However industry experts believe the price hike is only for the defaulter buyers who have not paid their dues as per their payment plan before the land issue in Noida.

The old investors said they would meet top officials of CREDAI as well as with the CEO of Greater Noida Authority next week to ask for their intervention in resolving these contentious issues with developers.

While the legality of this payout is still ambiguous, it is clear that Noida Extension will no longer be positioned as the affordable housing segment as planned earlier as the affected farmers are eligible for compensation from the land allottees that had acquired their land at meagre prices. Builders have already warned that prices will shoot up around 35-40 percent compared to last year. But Santosh Kumar, CEO Operations, at real estate research firm Jones Lang LaSalle India warns that buyers will only put their money when construction on the stalled projects actually begins on the ground.