If you are in the middle income bracket and living in Goa, chances are you will not be able to afford a reasonable two-bedroom apartment in any of the towns or the tourist coast.
The May 2005 freeze on Goa’s Regional Plan 2011 and the frenetic speculation by Delhi-based property brokers has pushed land costs to all-time highs in Goa. Real estate prices have gone up between 33 per cent to 50 per cent in less than 18 months, said Datta Naik, president Goa Chamber of Housing Industry (GCHI).
Take for instance the 200 square metre sea-front apartment which the local builder Dinar Tarcar was selling in Dona Paula for Rs 35 lakh two years ago. The flat is now worth Rs 2 crore. “The appreciation is both unbelievable and absurd, but the fact is I cannot afford to buy a flat in my own building,” Tarcar said.
Even a regular 100 square metre flat in the suburbs around Panjim costs over Rs 35 lakh today, say builders. Though prices around Margao, south Goa are marginally lower at Rs 20,000 per square metre built-up, this represents an appreciation of 33 per cent from prices that prevailed last year, Naik said. Closer to the coast, land prices have scaled even higher peaks as more and more North Indian speculators and big realtors are muscling in into the hotel industry in Goa.
“The problem is that Goa is a small state which has been turned into a big brand, and everyone from rich businessmen to NRIs want to own property here. Throw a stone anywhere in Goa and it’s bound to hit a broker these days,” said Naik.
The freeze on the Regional Plan, the frenzied buying and the scarcity of land in the market has put housing beyond the reach of the local population.
“Goans can no longer afford to buy property in their own state, and unless the government puts a cap on buying by outsiders there will be serious issues over the changing demographic composition,” Tarcar said.
The GCHI wants the state government to create land estates on the lines of the industrial ones, to provide “affordable” housing to locals and those living here for a minimum 15 years.
