The appetite for land acquisition continues unabated for developers and other entities after three waves of COVID-19. In 2022 till date, at least 28 land deals were sealed, accounting for over 1,237 acres across the country. Of the total transacted land, at least 18 deals, accounting for 351 acres, are earmarked for multiple residential projects across cities, an analysis by Anarock has showed.
At least three deals for over 115 acres are proposed for data centres, while two deals for over 63 acres are for logistics and warehousing projects. At least four deals for over 108 acres are for mixed-used developments. A single, currently anonymous land deal, for 600 acres has taken place in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad remained highly buoyant in the period, with the most land transactions - five separate deals for 715 acres accounted for over 59 percent of the total land transacted since January. These included one for 600 acres (development type not yet revealed)
Bengaluru saw three deals for a total of 140 acres earmarked for residential, mixed-use, and logistics developments
NCR also sealed five deals accounting for 9 percent of the total land deals in this period with approximately 106.3 acres. This includes two deals for a total of 91 acres in Gurugram, and one deal each in Delhi, Faridabad and Noida. The proposed developments include residential, mixed-use and warehousing.
Pune saw five deals for over 91.1 acres of land, accounting for 7 percent of the total land area transacted pan-India. All are proposed for residential development.
Land-starved MMR saw five deals involving 54.85 acres, all earmarked for residential developments. Chennai saw one deal for 5.5 acres where a mixed-use development has been proposed, it said.
Tier 2 and 3 cities with major land deals included Ahmedabad (two deals for over 6 acres), Nagpur (one deal for over 58 acres), and Sonipat (one deal for over 50 acres).
In comparison to H1 2021, the number of deals has doubled – from 14 deals in H1 2021 to 28 deals between January 2022 and now.There's more than a month to go for the half-year mark. As expected, residential development remains the prime focus, given the robust housing demand that has lost little of its steam despite interest rate and property price hikes. However, these two factors may yet reflect in the momentum going forward.