Alibaug as a property investment destination

Alibaug is one of the traditional weekend-getaway destinations for residents of Mumbai. Since the late 1990s, it has also emerged as a second home destination. Apart its proximity to Mumbai, many other factors make Alibaug an attractive second home destination. Not least among these are the availability of a seashore and the possibility of unwinding in low-density housing in natural environs, which is otherwise not possible within Mumbai.

Approximately 90% of the catchment belongs to Mumbai, while around 10% belongs to Pune. Alibaug’s homeowner corpus has a heavy contingent of HNIs, NRIs and public personalities like industrialists and film and theater artists. Most of these are based out of South Mumbai and find Alibaug to be a very convenient location to commute to.

The real estate market in Alibaug picked up on a modest note in the 1990s, primarily with plotted residential developments. However, in the last two years, a few projects offering villa/ bungalow type developments have also begun springing up. A major part of the development is being undertaken by the Samira Habitats Group, which contributes to approximately 90% of the total market share. Some of their initial projects were Samira Palms, Samira Woods and Samira Complex

The land prices in Alibaug vary drastically across the region. Vicinity to the sea and the highway put plots in the prime category, with prices to match. A plotted property with a sea view can easily exceed a ticket size of Rs. 5-6 crore/acre, while agricultural properties in the hinterland would be priced more modestly at Rs. 30-40 lakh/acre.

There are many plotted schemes by the aforementioned developers in this region, with sized varying from 1000-5000 square feet. The prices for such plots range from Rs. 400-2000/sq.ft., depending on the view, access roads, infrastructure, etc.

Alibaug is predominantly an investor market with few actual end users. To provide a sense of the growth in this market, it bears mentioning that plots which were selling at prices from Rs. 250-300/sq.ft in 2006-2007 are now selling in the range of Rs. 600-750/sq.ft. In other words, property values in Alibaug have more than doubled over the last three years; albeit much of this growth being ascribed to speculation and investment.

The fact that the Nhava-Seva Sea Link has not happened – nor is likely to happen in the foreseeable future – and the lack of better connectivity have already begun impacting sentiments in this market. Property prices there have reached their high levels largely on the power of speculation – a driver which has never displayed much staying power on the property market. There is every likelihood of stabilization and even rationalization of property prices in Alibaug over the next 6-10 months.