'Property prices in Greater Noida to increase sharply'

Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) today said consumers will have to pay much more for properties in the region in future after the Supreme Court disallowed acquisition of 176 hectares of land from farmers.

The authority also said it will return the land to the affected farmers as per the apex court ruling and will strictly follow the new land acquisition policy of Uttar Pradesh in acquiring land for future projects.

"After this court order, we will acquire all future land keeping in mind the market price and hence will have to pay higher land prices. Automatically, sale prices will increase and hence end consumers will be impacted severely," GNIDA CEO Rama Raman told PTI.

The authority will follow the court orders in "letter and spirit" and will return the land to farmers, he added.

"Initially, we will return the land as per the orders. We will see later how we can proceed in this respect after going through the detail judgement," Raman said.

He, however, did not specify what GNIDA will do to compensate the developers, but said it will acquire land at regular intervals "as and when necessary".

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had upheld a verdict of the Allahabad High Court that quashed acquisition of 176 hectares of land from farmers in Greater Noida saying the authorities were "sub-serving" private builders in the name of public interest.

Raman, however, said real estate development in the area is unlikely to get affected due to the judgement.

"I don't think it will affect much, but due to procedural steps, we may only witness some delays," he added.

Meanwhile, real estate analysts said the Supreme Court decision is unlikely to affect much in the future, but rather it will help all stakeholders to approach cautiously.

"Demand will not be impacted much in the region as developers are taking various proactive measures to address customers' concerns.

"From now onwards, all future transactions will see double verifications from all parties like consumers, developers and the government. It is a good thing for the sector to avoid any controversy," Jones Lang LaSalle CEO (Operations) Santhosh Kumar said.

He said developers may feel some impact in the near future as they are either refunding the money or giving alternate locations to consumers, who had booked their properties in the disputed area.

Expressing similar sentiments, Cushman & Wakefield India director (Residential Services) Shveta Jain said there will not be any significant impact to the existing customers as developers are relocating them to other projects in the area.