Real estate developers remained active on land acquisition for future development and they closed at least 87 land deals totalling 1,862 acres during the last fiscal year, according to Anarock.
During the previous year 2021-22, real estate consultant Anarock noted that 44 land deals accounting for about 1,649 acres were closed across various cities.
Anarock Chairman Anuj Puri noted that size of the deals were smaller in the 2022-23 fiscal as compared to the previous year.
Of all deals closed in FY23, at least 76 accounting for about 1,059 acres were in seven major cities, and the remaining 11 deals accounting for 803 acres took place in Tier 2 and 3 cities including Ahmedabad, Kurukshetra, Lucknow, Nagpur, Panchkula, Panipat, Raigad and Surat.
Among the top seven cities, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) saw the maximum 25 land deals accounting for over 267 acres, followed by Delhi-NCR with 23 land deals totalling 274 acres.
In terms of total land transacted, Chennai saw maximum at 292 acres in nine separate deals.
With land becoming scarcer amid the unfettered real estate development boom, leading players are pulling out all the stops to secure the best land parcels in key locations," Anarock Chairman Anuj Puri said.
In the last financial year, the number of land deals has risen significantly to 87 from 44 in FY'22.
However, in terms of area, the increase was just 13 per cent- implying that several smaller deals were closed in FY23, Puri said.
Large and listed real estate developers are buying land aggressively to create pipeline for future development amid strong houing demand.
"Land being a key input commodity for real estate development, they have been making strategic investments across key micro-markets and quite a few prominent deals took place in the last financial year," Puri said.
Of the total land deals in FY'23, 57 separate deals for over 951 acres have been proposed for residential or plotted developments.
At least 714 acres acquired in 8 separate land deals have been earmarked for mixed-use and township developments in cities including Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Panchkula and Panipat.
For development of office and retail projects, 11 separate land transactions involving 46.5 acres were closed during the last fiscal.