Revised land prices to make housing costlier in Visakhapatnam
VISAKHAPATNAM: There has been a nearly 30% hike in the registration value of lands in various parts of Visakhapatnam.
The prices have been revised by over 50% in some parts of Kurmannapalem, Yendada, Anandapuram, Tallavalasa, Sontyam, Ramavaram, etc. The hike in registration value has also been extended to flats and agricultural lands.
Soon after the state government announced its proposal of making Vizag as the executive capital in 2020, there was a steep hike in the market value of lands, particularly in the suburbs like Atchuthapuram, Bheemili, Anandapuram, Kurmannapalem, Sabbavaram, Pendurthi, etc. However, since then, the market has almost stagnated with the prices remaining in the same range due to the ongoing certainty over executive capital shifting.
According to realtors and builders, the revised land values may now negatively impact the real estate market in Vizag, at least in the initial months.
They claim that the hike may discourage the prospective buyers, particularly the middle-class sections.
It may take some time to completely know the effect of the revised prices on transaction volumes in Visakhapatnam.
CREDAI AP chapter general secretary and immediate past chairman of Vizag chapter Bayana Srinivasa Rao said that the Covid-19 had severely affected the volume of transactions in the real estate space in the first two years of the onset of the pandemic.
“The prices going northwards would only shatter the dreams of prospective middle-class buyers. The steep hike in construction material prices already made the housing costly. Now the increase in open plot and flat registration values would make it further costly for the common man,” said Srinivasa Rao.
Some prospective buyers are finding the home prices more costly in Visakhapatnam than in the suburbs of other cities.
“Connectivity to the city and local infrastructure are the biggest issue to buy flats or plots on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam. At the same time, the land and apartment prices are out of reach for the common man in the core city. While the flats are being sold at ₹7,000 to ₹10,000 per square foot in the core city, the plot prices are more than ₹1 lakh per square yard in several parts of the city,” said N Madhusudhan, a faculty at a private college who migrated to Vizag from East Godavari.
Meanwhile, the VMRDA has started developing several MIG layouts in the districts in its jurisdiction. These fixed price plots will be allocated on a lottery basis.
