The turmoil in J&K couples with the slowdown in the country’s real estate sector has affected the industry in Jammu. There is stagnation in investments and a visible negative growth in industry and developers differ over whether the boom bubble will burst. “Agreed that the withdrawal of certain concessions (excise duty exemption) to the industry led to loss of capital, offering of government accommodation to the migrant Kashmiri pandits living in camps slightly impacted demand and general slump in trade during the agitation over Amarnath land followed by boycott of Jammu goods in Kashmir is hurting, but this is not going to impact the sector so greatly,” said property dealer Dinesh Kumar. “We have around a dozen builders and three of them have already tied up with major builders at the national level and some more are busy negotiating JVs.”

“There were some problems last year but I see the real estate witnessing a growth of around 10% this year,” said Nidheesh Builders’ head Murthi Gupta. “Growth of nuclear families, continuous migrations from the countryside and sustained flow of soldiers retiring from services will continue to maintain the demand for vertical housing, that despite being a new concept is gradually getting acceptability,” he added. Mr Gupta, who in the last 15 years has successfully built and sold many properties, said security, social dependency, facilities at affordable investments were helping the apartment culture to sustain and gain popularity. Many others think that restriction on Floor Space Index (FSI) in Jammu had acted as a deterrent for developing high-rise buildings.

“This is a happening sector,” says Kulbushan Jandial, J&K’s information secretary who earlier headed Jammu Development Authority. “People see a great future and better appreciation in real estate than in gold and share market so huge investments are taking place.” The existing law does not permit any non-state subject to acquire land, so the non-local companies have entered into tie-ups with local builders owning land. Parsvnath Developers has joined hands with Mass House Building Cooperative to set up a housing project and is now pursuing the second phase, this time in Sidhra, a satellite township that is more famous because many top officials reside there. Ansals too tied up with an edible oil manufacturer who owns a real estate company. Kamdhenu Realtors have inked a deal with Mahajan Builders and at least three more deals are on table involving some top builders of national repute. In most of these deals, it is the non-local partner investing in developing the projects on land which locals own. But this all is not convincing C P Gupta, who owns four companies worth Rs 50 crore, including United Build Tech. “Jammu lacks the vertical housing culture and whoever wants is unable to offer the money in white. I see a negative growth, especially after the recent agitation,” he said.

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