Myriad options for mid-to-luxury housing segment

The Golf Course Extension Road has emerged one of the sought residential corridors in Gurgaon. While not priced as high as the neighbouring Golf Course Road, it offers multiple apartment options for the upper-mid segment moving up the value chain to luxury housing options.

This residential corridor has seen 18,300 residential apartment units being launched and many of these are in advanced stages of construction. About 7,000 residential units have been delivered here, with another 7,200 slated for completion by the end of 2016. This residential market has a good mix of end-users, as well as the investor segment, offering healthy capital appreciation. This has also resulted in a healthy secondary sales market in this corridor.

Consistent increase in prices has caused sales to dampen. Besides, the overall slow market for high-ticket sized apartments has impacted sales velocity in this corridor. However, some older projects have done reasonably well and the unsold inventory is not that high. Good deals are available in the secondary market for completed and for close-to-completion projects.

This corridor has multiple township projects by well-known developers such as Ireo, Ansal API, M3M, Emaar MGF, Unitech, Pioneer Urban and Brahma Group, among others. There are around 20 developers undertaking residential project development here. Currently, prices are Rs 9,500 a sq ft to Rs 13,000 a sq ft for premium and high-end luxury projects.

This is also being considered one of the more important emerging office corridors in Gurgaon. While only six commercial projects are operational, future supply is robust. This augurs well for future non-IT, corporate office demand. It can prove to be a good replacement for the MG Road and Golf Course Road office markets, where vacancies in the commercial projects are low. A couple of quality office projects here have seen healthy absorption volumes and others lined up for completion are seeing good occupier interest.

This market's rents are at least 40-50 per cent lower than the MG Road and Golf Course Road office markets. There are still licensed land parcels for commercial and IT/SEZ projects, which have yet to break ground, and this corridor is likely to see frenetic activity.

Infrastructure development, in terms of development of sector roads, has been completed to a large extent. This corridor is also likely to be linked via the Metro Rail earlier than other emerging areas. The Rapid Metro connectivity till Golf Course Road and the 16-lane expressway from NH-8 till Golf Course Road, and the planned enhanced road connectivity between Golf Course Road and Golf Course Extension Road, should act as further growth drivers for this corridor.

Over the next 18-24 months, this corridor is likely to find its bearings as a residential as well as commercial centre.

The writer is an associate director - research & real estate intelligence service - JLL India