The holy river Saryu flows quietly; unmindful of the fact that on its bank, Ayodhya is fast emerging as the epicenter of economic growth and global tourism hub. The property landscape of the sleepy city till recently has made a giant stride in the last three years. Envisaged as a spiritual center and tourism hub, Ayodhya is also attracting big ticket economic corridors. A Track2Realty report.
It is no surprise that Ayodhya is also attracting sizable investments from across the country and globally. This money is naturally finding real estate and infrastructure as a long-term bet to park itself.
Ram Naresh, a native of Ayodhya, has been into property brokerage businesses but operating out of Noida & Greater Noida. The reason why this otherwise home-sick agent had not been working in his home town was lack of opportunity. Ayodhya has never been on the property landscape of India a very attractive destination. Everything seems to have changed for better in the last couple of years.
“Till 2019 it was not feasible to meet the ends while working in the property market of Ayodhya. Most of the deals were plotted developments and transactions were by and large directly between the buyer and the seller. Ayodhya Ram Mandir and the announcement of International Airport has ignited the property market of the city. Now a couple of large developers from Noida are launching multistoried apartments in Ayodhya and I have more work over there compared to Noida & Greater Noida,” says Naresh.
This property agent is not alone who is finding a goldmine at Ayodhya. The fact is that ever since the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple got clearance by the Apex Court of India, the residential properties within the radius of 10 km – 15 km from the temple site has seen an immense increase in cost and same is the case with plots that are up for sale in the vicinity.
The temple town of Ayodhya is expected to witness a huge gathering of pilgrims and this has goaded the first mover developers to reap the benefits. In terms of the offerings, a growing number of tourists would mean ample amount of space needed to accommodate them and hence developers are showing keen interest, especially for land parcels of mixed-use development.
The Uttar Pradesh Government has also made available 1100 acres of land for acquisition to construct residential, commercial and retail development and private developers are growing in numbers to acquire these and start their projects.
In terms of appreciation, the areas surrounding the temple site within a distance of 15 km are performing very well with already appreciated prices. There is a very high demand for land parcels around Ram Katha Park and the bypass Road nearby that connects the town with major cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Basti and Azamgarh.
Properties in Naya Ghat and Theri Bazar areas are also performing extremely well. Owing to the upcoming International Airport and Bus Terminal and the Government’s proposal to come up with cruise vessels, the entire stretch of Ayodhya looks forward to become a tourist hub.
Property analysts are not surprised with the above-average appreciation of Ayodhya property in the last three years. They rather feel the real boom is ahead and not behind. Once the Ram Temple is completed, Ayodhya property prices are expected to be highest among the pilgrim destinations of India. Ayodhya, along with Varanasi, is also expected to lead the property boom for at least next one decade.
Ashish Narain Agarwal, Founder & CEO, PropertyPistol.com believes since the Supreme Court verdict in November 2019, the price of properties in Ayodhya has gone up exponentially. The property prices in regions that are 10 km – 15 km from the Ram Janmabhoomi site have gone up by 25%-30%.
“The Government’s plan to transform the temple town in its true glory has attracted the attention of many investors like property purchasers, plot buyers, second homes and retirement homes seekers especially NRIs, etc. Historically, any region with spiritual significance has always seen a healthy growth in real estate and the same stands true for Ayodhya,” says Agarwal.
The fundamental question today is whether there is any real demand or it is just the property hype borne out of Ram Temple? Local analysts believe the demand is coming from long-term investors that were scouting for long a new global tourist destination.
“As per rough estimate, nearly 80,000-1,00,000 tourists would be coming to Ayodhya daily. Then there is limited supply of land parcels as it is not a mega city with stretchable boundaries. Most of the government acquired land parcels are for infrastructure purposes and not real estate. That is the reason even some of the periphery locations with prices around INR 500 per sq feet have now gone to INR 2,000 per sq feet,” explains Ram Sevak, a local property agent.
JP Singh, a retired government employee is a happy man with Ayodhya turning out to be a goldmine for land owners. He bought a piece of land at INR 20 lakh in the year 2000 and built his own house. Now that he is planning to shift to Mumbai where his son works, no buyer was ready to offer the value of his house more than INR 2 crore. Ram Temple euphoria everything seems to have changed fortunes for him.
“I used to think if I sell the bigger house, I wouldn’t be able to buy a decent 2BHK in Mumbai with that money. But now I am being offered double the price for the same house. My property dealer has advised me not to get tempted with an INR 2 crore offer and wait for a year or so. Never thought my city Ayodhya would be as costly as some of the metro cities of India,” says an elated Singh.
The Ayodhya region did not enjoy any value appreciation or visibility before the Supreme Court verdict in 2019. Hence, other than the upcoming Ram Mandir and the infrastructure and business development in connection with the temple, there are no other catalysts that can boost the real estate sector in the region.
It is not just the Indian developers and the brokerage firms that are finding the city of Ayodhya as a new happy hunting ground. Even the global chain of Berkshire Hathway Home Services is eyeing the city as an engine of growth in its Indian scheme of things.
Ravi Sinha
#RaviTrack2Media
Ravi Sinha is a journalist with nearly two decades of cross-discipline media exposure. He is the CEO of real estate think-tank group Track2Realty. He has been writing extensively on the real estate sector for nearly a decade. Evaluation of real estate brand performance is his expertise and he has immense insight into consumers’ psychograph in the property market.
Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.
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