Now that Ram Lala has arrived in Ayodhya, real estate biggies from Mumbai are making a beeline for a holy piece of land!
Seven top players (from Mumbai) including Hiranandani Group, Godrej Properties and Runwal Group have purchased huge land parcels in the temple city in the last three months, according to reliable sources.
Property prices surge 179%
And property prices are surging 179% following the Pran Pratishthan ceremony by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, according to Magicbricks, an online real estate portal.
Reliable sources told FPJ that B Teams of Mumbai-based Developers are in Ayodhya right now scouting for more land banks and also setting up business development operations. Their focus is three-pronged - land plotting (sale of plots), development of residential townships and commercial and hospitality business.
According to Dr Adv Harshul Savla, managing partner M Realty, Ayodhya today has 17 hotels with only 590 hotel rooms. 73 new hotels are in the pipeline of which 40 are already under construction. Marriott International and IHCL have already signed deals for hotels and OYO is set to add 1000 rooms. “The scope for hospitality is immense; no surprise developers are fanning out their teams on a land grab expedition!”
Magicbricks report
Average property rates in Ayodhya, where the Ram Mandir was opened to the general public on January 23, have gone up by 179 percent in the last three months, according to Magicbricks. The real estate portal says, average prices in Ayodhya have increased from Rs 3,174 per sq ft in October 2023 to Rs 8,877 per sq ft in January 2024.
According to ANAROCK Group, a real estate consultancy firm, land rates, which ranged from Rs 1,000 to 2,000 per sqft in 2019, are now at Rs 4,000 to 6,000 per sqft.
Property prices close to the Ram Mandir area fluctuating between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 per sq ft. Earlier it was around Rs 2000 -3000 per sq ft. Those located within 6-15 km of the temple site now command a rate of Rs 4,000-Rs 9,000 per sq ft.
Local real estate experts told FPJ the craze for commercial land is building up. Just last week, a team from the Maximum city had approached Sudharkar Srivastava, a local hotelier and property dealer from Ayodhya for a land parcel near the very site where Abhinandan Lodha group is coming up with Sarayu, a seven-star mixed-use luxury enclave. Bollywood Biggie Amitabh Bachchan is reported to have purchased a 10,000 sq ft plot here for Rs 14.5 crore (approx).
Property prices have become unaffordable for locals
Srivastava added that he had taken a Mumbai-based developer’s team around to check out some sites. “They have liked a land parcel of 640 biswas (one biswa is equivalent to 1361 sq ft area) which is situated close to the Abhinandan Lodha group site. I am in contact with the local farmers there and we have managed to bring them all together on one platform and collected 640 biswas in a continuous stretch. But the developer wants 1000 biswas and is not too happy about the price point”, Srivastava told FPJ.
He added that the rate for each biswa was around Rs 10 lacs. Earlier a biswas was available for Rs 2 to 3 lacs, he said. However, sources told FPJ that farmers and local agents sensing a demand from big players are purposely jacking up the price and also projecting scarcity even though land parcels are easily available. “They are projecting a demand-supply situation.”
Property prices, Srivastava said, have become unaffordable for locals in some parts of Ayodhya because of the entry of real-estate players from outside, like Mumbai, NCR, Gujarat and other districts. "There is a growing demand not just from locals but from investors outside Ayodhya as well," said Anuj Puri, Chairman, ANAROCK Group.
Several areas such as Faizabad Road, Deokali, Chaudah Kosi Parikrama, Ring Road, Nayaghat, and areas along the Lucknow-Gorakhpur highway are seeing strong demand, local brokers told FPJ. These areas are located within a 6-20-km radius of the Ram Mandir and hence have drawn investor interest, they added.
After the Supreme Court judgement in 2019 and now the Mandir opening, property registrations are reported to have spiked in Ayodhya. According to data from the Stamp and Registration Department of Ayodhya district, property registrations have gone up by 120 percent between 2017 and 2022.
