The Kerala Government's green signal to the Smart City project has made a surprisingly quick impact on the real estate sector in the Kakkanad area, in Kochi city where the project will be located.
Overnight, real estate prices have gone up. Within hours of the announcement, the real estate sector warmed up while the brokers got active. In just one day, there was at least a 10 per cent hike in the (speculative) price of Real estate Kochi. This trend is expected to continue with land and building prices going up further as the project gets materialized. Realty developers are all excited about the project in Kochi.
Until a few years back, Kakkanad full of paddy fields, and hills used to be a sluggish area. With the arrival of Info Park and scores of apartment buildings and villa projects, the landscape changed. Hundreds of acres of paddy fields got transformed into real estate hot property.
The plan to locate Smart City in Kochi three years ago further boosted the real estate prices. Anticipating hefty value appreciation in the future, speculators bought up every available piece of land. Over the past three years, there have been several ups and downs in the prospects of the projects. Every time there was a positive development, the real estate prices in the entire area went up and when there was a setback, the prices fell.
It is the speculators who are the happiest about the smart city project for it is they who buy small pieces of property at cheap rates, and after holding them for a while and making some changes to enhance its value, sell these at a much higher price. Strangely, it is the local residents awaiting eviction to locate the project, who would be the ultimate losers. While other landowners and real estate brokers make a killing, the local residents who actually provide land for the project would be victimized. They would find it difficult to find cheap land to buy anywhere in Kerala with the money they get for their land acquired for the project.
Meanwhile, environmentalists are worried that the beautiful countryside with long stretches of paddy fields and hills would be gone forever. Not just the land to be acquired for the project, but the whole area surrounding it would turn into real estate. Because of the boom in real estate caused by the Smart City, the paddy fields in Thrikkakara and nearby panchayats would soon vanish.
Overnight, real estate prices have gone up. Within hours of the announcement, the real estate sector warmed up while the brokers got active. In just one day, there was at least a 10 per cent hike in the (speculative) price of Real estate Kochi. This trend is expected to continue with land and building prices going up further as the project gets materialized. Realty developers are all excited about the project in Kochi.
Until a few years back, Kakkanad full of paddy fields, and hills used to be a sluggish area. With the arrival of Info Park and scores of apartment buildings and villa projects, the landscape changed. Hundreds of acres of paddy fields got transformed into real estate hot property.
The plan to locate Smart City in Kochi three years ago further boosted the real estate prices. Anticipating hefty value appreciation in the future, speculators bought up every available piece of land. Over the past three years, there have been several ups and downs in the prospects of the projects. Every time there was a positive development, the real estate prices in the entire area went up and when there was a setback, the prices fell.
It is the speculators who are the happiest about the smart city project for it is they who buy small pieces of property at cheap rates, and after holding them for a while and making some changes to enhance its value, sell these at a much higher price. Strangely, it is the local residents awaiting eviction to locate the project, who would be the ultimate losers. While other landowners and real estate brokers make a killing, the local residents who actually provide land for the project would be victimized. They would find it difficult to find cheap land to buy anywhere in Kerala with the money they get for their land acquired for the project.
Meanwhile, environmentalists are worried that the beautiful countryside with long stretches of paddy fields and hills would be gone forever. Not just the land to be acquired for the project, but the whole area surrounding it would turn into real estate. Because of the boom in real estate caused by the Smart City, the paddy fields in Thrikkakara and nearby panchayats would soon vanish.
