The skyline of the capital to change

Rajan Rastogi has been living in a spacious house in posh Jor Bagh area of the capital for the last three decades. It was his ancestral home. Built in a classical colonial style, it is worth living. Only lucky few can think of living in such a grand bungalow n heart of the city. While Rajan loves to   live there in future too, but there is a growing feeling in him that should he live in a house which is costing close to Rs 35 crores or so with his small family? He is in a real dilemma, has already discussed the matter with his close friends and also with those who know about the realty world.

Well, Rajan is not the only guy living in a big bungalow worth astronomical sum and thinking of doing something to unlock the value of his property. The list is growing and growing with a very rapid pace.

Said Sameer Chopra,MD,Prop equity,” They are not among those in the past who  either sold off their properties when they faced some financial  crunch or join hands with some developer to build  flats/ floors on their properties and earned good money. They actually are financially secure but keen to use their properties to further their interests.”

Realty experts says that the feeling of unlocking the  real value of their properties got further boost after it is allowed to build four floors in capital. It is like basement for your storage purpose, gym and other things, stilt floor for parking cars and then ground, first, second as well as third floor.  According to Sanjay Khanna,director of Kailashnath Projects Pvt.Ltd, the  new master plan of Delhi-2021 has given enough opportunities for all those living in big houses to demolish them and build flats/floors there, adds “ Then there is a thinking among families who are living in houses that is it okay to live in properties whose market costs are huge? I thought it is very sensible feeling given the  fact the value of properties in capital is touching the sky. That is the major factor for house owners to join hands with developers to unlock the value of their properties,” says Sanjay Khanna, whose grand father, Mr.Kailash Nath Khanna, built  one of the early high-rise buildings of Connaught Place like Himalaya House and Kanchanjunga.

A noted photo journalist Chandru Mirchandani, whose father was allotted land to build house in colony for Sindhis in Mayfair garden in early 70s, says that when his father got piece of land he never thought that he would one day demolish it to build flats there. For that matter, nobody thought on such lines. Those were the innocent times.  Later like other colonies, the value of  Mayfair garden has also started going up. “ And as the  value of properties hit the roof, people started  re-developing them. Now, more and more people are doing that earn money,” informs Chandru, whose father was a General Manager in UNI and sold his house to a young engineer, who later built certain Unitech group.

Are we Diliiwalls following Mumbaikars who prefer living in flats rather than independent homes ? “ Perhaps, yes. After all, it is  not easy to maintain independent home. The flat culture also gives you sense of security. And then if you live in a nice flat, then you can have all the possible luxuries in it,” says Nuzhat Aleem, marketing director of ILD.

Sanjay Khanna says that but for the areas like Sunder Nagar, East Nizamuddin,Golf Link and Jor Bagh, more and more  house owners are either stated thinking of re developing their properties or are already in the process of doing so. “ I know for sure that when this very trend would be in peak, buyers with deep pockets shun places like Gurgaon and Noida. If they would have good choice to live here, they would never cross the boundaries of capital. After all, no city n NCR can match Delhi,’ he concludes.

However, this claim was sharply contested by Sanjeev Shrivatava,MD of Assotech group when he said, “While it may be true that prospective buyers would have more and more options to buy  good  houses, but the people continue to buy properties in Noida, Gurgaon and other cities of NCR as large umber of corporate  offices are operating from these cities. And as the traffic situation is only worsening in capital, people having offices in NCR would prefer to stay close to their offices rather than commuting from capital daily.

Unlike all those who are both cash rich and also  owning  big properties in key areas, many residents of Gulmohar park either sold off their homes or redevelop them as they had no regular source of income post retirement.  A veteran journalist  who was allotted a land there in early 70s says after retirement he had no regular income. Hence, he redeveloped his house and built couple of flats there with the help of a builder. That way he made his life secure financially.    All said and done, the skyline of the capital would see huge change. Just wait.