Kolkata

If poor infrastructure and lack of development held back real estate prices on the western front of the Hooghly for the last couple of years, the upcoming real estate projects are changing the industrial landscape in the Howrah-Hooghly belt, pushing up property prices.

Less commuting time, excellent connectivity and real estate ventures by large branded players like the Unitech, Universal Success, Forum Projects, Peerless, Merlin Group, Keventer Projects and the Salim-Ciputra group indicate that the area seems to be tantalisingly poised on the threshold of the next wave of realty action.

It may be mentioned that land prices had skyrocketed on Kona Expressway and stretches of National Highway-2 and National Highway-6 with projects like the DLF township in Dankuni, Kolkata West International City and the logistic hub on Kona Expressway coming up. Several brokers purchased land in the area hoping for the price to shoot up further.

“Though there has been an impact on the price of land in that belt after the Tatas decided to leave Singur, real estate prices do not change overnight. Had the Tatas decided to build their plant in Singur itself, land prices would have shot up. After they left, real estate prices still moved northwards but the pace was slow. It is only recently that the real estate price picked up momentum,” says a senior real estate consultant on conditions of anonymity.

What should, however, be kept in mind is that the real estate market in this part of the city has not developed as fast as it has in Kolkata. Most of the developments, which have come up in and around this area and offer some 10-200 flats per project, have been done by small and mid sized local players.

Lemongrass Advisors joint managing director Abhijit Das said, “Howrah is densely populated — more in terms of numbers — than the Kolkata Municipal Corporation areas of Kolkata. It is inhabited primarily by low and middle income Bengali and non-Bengali business families barring some clusters within the area which are occupied by high income business families. Since the inhabitants are into unorganised and semi organised businesses, the buying power of the catchment area is weak compared to that of proper Kolkata. Skilled professionals from these areas usually travel to Kolkata for their jobs.”

Some of the city’s leading realtors second this emotion. “People staying in the suburbs of Kolkata do not relocate to Howrah, till such time they are offered something different or unique than what Kolkata has on offer and that too, at an attractive price. Besides, it is easy to woo Howrah consumers to projects being developed in proper Kolkata but not so easy vice versa,” they say.

Among the various projects, Kolkata West International City is probably one of the first large scale organised developments in the Howrah district and Merlin Uttara at Konnagar, one of the first organised branded realty projects in Uttarpara. Developed by Merlin Group, Merlin Uttara was conceptualised to meet the growing demand for urban living standards in Kolkata’s fringes, especially on the other side of the Ganges.

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