Local developers dominate Punjab realty market

Vijay C Roy
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 12

Unlike metros where major national players rule the roost in the realty sector, in Punjab, home-grown developers dominate the residential real estate market. With small ticket size, delivery and budget-friendly housing projects, the local developers enjoy over 70% share.

According to trade insiders and property consultants, the entry of NCR-based developers fuelled the prices by acquiring huge chunks of land between 2005 and 2010.

However, agents say many of the projects did not live up to the expectations of buyers as they failed to take off and this was the main reason for people showing confidence in local developers.  In Mohali alone, the residential housing projects by some of the prominent NCR-based developers such as Unitech, Pearl Group and Emaar MGF, failed to take off due to various reasons. 

“Most of the players based in Delhi/NCR have larger interest in metros or tier-I cities because of huge margins there. In cities like Mohali, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar, they can’t think of that level of margins. So, the realty market in these cities received step-motherly treatment by builders of national repute and they ultimately lost buyers’ interest,” said Ashish Mittal, director, Royal Estate Group.

“With many of the buyers having burnt fingers in such projects, people prefer local builders as in case of any dispute, they are easily approachable,” he said. 

According to experts, some of the NCR-based developers acquired land in major cities,  including Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. According to insiders, their projects never took off because of mismanagement and having not accustomed to local needs. Currently, a few of them are facing trials at NCLT and the Supreme Court. 

“This is a trend that is visible across the country. Most of the big names (local developers) in the industry have a large concentration of their business in one single state. It is easy for these players to understand the needs of the customer. Also, these players have the dynamism required to adapt to the ever-changing market conditions and the norms set by the government. Real estate being a large ticket investment, a customer is more comfortable when he gets personal touch in the operations of the company,” said Prateek Mittal, executive director, Sushma Group.

Babbu Manjinder Singh, proprietor, Dashmesh Property Adviser (Ludhiana), said local developers manage to get hold of a lion’s share of the market because of budget-friendly offerings.

Ground reality 

• No. of projects registered with RERA: 705
• Major markets: Zirakpur, Mohali, Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar and Amritsar
• Projects yet to take off: Unitech, Pearl Group, Emaar MGF

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