Land prices in Vijayawada shoots up - TeluguPeople.com News

VIJAYAWADA: Amidst reports that the chief minister's camp office will be located on the premises of Acharya Nagarjuna University between Vijayawada and Guntur, and that there is a possibility of a place for capital city for the residuary Andhra Pradesh being chosen near Vijayawada, the land prices have shot up in and around Vijayawada and Guntur cities in the last week.

AP chief minister-designate Chandrababu Naidu's reported step to set up the camp office at ANU has given so much impetus to the real estate sector that just in the last one week itself prices have doubled up. While the prices are skyrocketing, strangely transactions are not taking place as developers and builders are trying to stop sales expecting further rise in the prices.

As it is expected that the Vijayawada-Guntur belt will witness growth due to its central location besides being a front runner for setting up capital city, land prices have been skyrocketing steadily over the past one year.

Considering the area's potential, the government set up VGTM Urban Development Authority for a planned development of Vijayawada, Guntur, Mangalagiri and Tenali.

With Chandrababu Naidu announcing his intention to shift base to Seemandhra as soon as possible, speculation is rife that even Eluru and Nuzvid will be included in the UDA limits.

Though an official announcement about the location of the chief minister's camp office has not been made yet, remodelling and sprucing up work is going on at a fast pace at ANU, APSP Battalion at Mangalagiri and other government buildings and guest houses in Vijayawada and Guntur. With this sudden spurt of activity, real estate developers and builders are having a field day.

'The demand has increased hugely after the election results. Earlier, builders were after customers, now customers are after builders. As Guntur is projected as administrative capital, the demand for land has hugely increased in the past one week itself.

While enquiries from employees stationed at Hyderabad, who will be shifting to Seemandhra, are yet to begin, builders are getting huge number of queries from NRIs and Seemandhras working in places like Bangalore, Chennai, among others as they feel that the region is sure to develop and are mulling to shift here,' explains Alla Siva Reddy, president of the Guntur chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (Credai).

If Seemandhra employees start shifting here from Hyderabad, the demand is only going to grow further. While people who have bought lands and flats in the past one year can thank their lucky stars, new buyers, especially lower and middle class customers, will find buying a new property out of their reach.

Not just property prices even rental prices have increased enormously. Either in Vijayawada or Guntur depending on the place rentals have increased about 20 to 40 percent for both residential and commercial spaces.

While middle-class people and new buyers are already feeling the pinch of increased rates real estate marketers are grateful to TRS chief KCR for causing the state's division.

'We have a venture at G.Kondur, which is about 20 km from Vijayawada on the Mylavaram-Ibrahimpatnam stretch on the Chhattisgarh Highway. We had launched this venture three years ago and have not sold even half of the plots till the elections.

But after the election results, all the plots have been sold. While I had faced a lot of difficulty in convincing people to invest there, with the news spreading that the CM's camp office is being set up between Vijayawada and Guntur and due to the availability of government land between Hanuman Junction, Nuzvid and Ibrahimpatnam, people are showing interest to invest there.

All this is due to bifurcation and we should thank KCR. Though we thought that the prices would increase, we did not expect it on this scale,' says Vijay Raju, assistant marketing manager of a popular real estate firm.

With the region set to become administrative headquarters, even commercial establishments and industrialists are scouting for lands.

'In the last three weeks I have guided many top hoteliers and industrialists who want to set up their business here. All these are big establishments with their annual turnover running into hundreds of crores.

But I am startled to find that land rates have doubled and even tripled. With the expectation of further rise, no one is selling land and transactions are not taking place.

Also, there is a lot of confusion over which office will come where and which areas will be notified, etc. We expect clarity on it within a month,' said Gadde Rajling, president of Greater Vijayawada Builders Association.

Though there is a lot of confusion over where the CM's camp office will be set up, where the officials will be stationed, will the families of employees shift immediately or not one thing is sure. Land prices and rentals have gone beyond the reach of people in the past two weeks.