HC Bench spurs realty boom
Vincent D’Souza | TNN
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
Hubli: Belur, 10 km away from Dharwad off the Pune-Bangalore Highway, was a sleepy village a few years ago.
Today, it is one of the most happening places in the state in terms of property value, though it still comes under the purview of Neeralkatti gram panchayat. Thanks to the High Court Circuit Bench, situated near Walmi, that has boosted land prices and house rentals in the vicinity.
Land prices in Neeralkatti, Mammigatti, Tegur and other villages alongside the National Highway — falling under the radius of 8 to 10 km — have shot up considerably in recent months.
“An acre of land abutting NH-4 was priced at Rs 10 to 12 lakh two years ago and the same is valued anywhere between Rs 30 to 35 lakh now,” said Santosh Jadhav, a realtor. “If it is a few kilometres away from the National Highway, it costs about Rs 20 lakh,” he added.
The trend that set in two years ago when works on the HC Bench building got an impetus, made landholders, a majority of them farmers, calculate in terms of lakhs. Further, as the realty boom swept rural pockets and land became worth its weight in gold, more farmers away from Dharwad periphery began trading traditional land measurement terms like the gunta and acre for deals in square feet. Sensing megabucks that a deal in square foot can rake in, farmers across villages within a radius of 10-15 km from Hubli and Dharwad have started quoting prices in square foot.
Also, house rentals in Dharwad shot up by 80 to 100 percent within days after the announcement of HC Bench inauguration. A single bedroom house in a decent locality costs a minimum of Rs 2,500 while the rent of a double bedroom house is not less than Rs 4,000. Additional facility like car parking will add up another Rs 500.
H Shreeshail, a tech support working in the HC Bench feels that his decision of volunteering to Dharwad Bench from Bangalore did not turn out to be wise. “I was paying Rs 5,000 for a double bedroom house in Banaswadi in Bangalore and even here I have to shell out the same amount. I thought that I could cut down few thousands in house rent and hence had volunteered my transfer,” he says.
