Noida & Greater Noida authorities fail to find buyers for ready flats

NOIDA | GREATER NOIDA: Signifying an overall slowdown in the local real estate market, ready-to-move-in flats being offered by the industrial development authorities in Noida and Greater Noida are also struggling to find takers. Having been on the block for six months now, the authorities could sell just a handful of flats to date.

In various schemes and offers, the Noida Authority and the Greater Noida Authority floated a total of 1,835 flats during the current fiscal, which is drawing to a close within a week. However, despite their best efforts, only 45 odd flats have been sold so far, TOI has learnt. The scenario in the twin cities is in sharp contrast to what had been witnessed in Delhi.

The Delhi Development Authority earlier this year launched 1,354 flats. More than 22,000 homebuyers queued up after paying up the registration fees to bag the DDA flats. According to market experts, the problem is with the price points and the ticket size of the units that are being marketed by the two authorities.

“Due to lack of trust on developers in Noida and Greater Noida, the schemes of the two authorities should have got a similar response that was witnessed in Delhi. But the authorities are commanding a steep premium, which is unacceptable to buyers,” said Pankaj Kapoor of real estate analytics firm Liases Foras.

Buyers who have been house hunting agree with the view of the experts.

An IT executive who stays on rent in Sector 74’s Supertech Capetown, Prashant Yadav has been looking for a ready-to-move-in property for the past two months. “I checked the properties being offered by the two authorities. The per square foot rate of such properties is almost double of what private developers are offering. Plus one gets a swimming pool, club house and other facilities in private apartments.”

While the Greater Noida Authority is offering 1,480 flats, the Noida Authority floated 355 units in ground plus three storey buildings in August. The Greater Noida Authority launched an open-ended scheme, while Noida Authority closed its scheme within a period of two months.

Officials of Noida Authority said that not a single flat could be sold even though they had offered low-income, middle-income and higher-income categories across multiple sectors. Noida Authority’s MIG flat in Sector 62 having an area of about 1,000 sq ft was priced at Rs 66.44 lakh while its HIG flat in Sector 99 spread over 1,650 sqft was worth Rs 1.62 crore.

Chief executive officer of the Noida Authority, Ritu Maheshwari said that rates of the units have been fixed as per the prevailing land rate. “We will apprise senior officials of the response. Right now we do not intend to revise the rates of these apartments.”

Greater Noida Authority has been offering 1BHK, 2BHK and 3BHK of different configurations across various sectors. While the average price of 3BHKs (carpet area of 1,103 sq ft) is in the range of Rs 84 lakh, the 2BHK with study (carpet area of 727 sq ft) is priced at Rs 52 lakh. Apart from paying up for the flat, buyers will also have to pay a significant amount as lease rent.