Billion-rupee for a Chandigarh address: The City Beautiful joins India’s luxury realty league

A house in Chandigarh has changed hands for approximately Rs. 100 crore. The 2,489-square-yard (~4.1 kanal) house in city’s plush Sector 9 was sold on May 13, according to the latest property registration data accessed by The Indian Express, with the transaction value nearly 69 per cent above its collector value of Rs. 59.27 crore.

But the billon-rupee deal is not merely a one-off headline-grabbing transaction. Property registration data points to a wider phenomenon at the top end of Chandigarh’s soaring housing market.

Senior UT administration officials explain the reasons behind this soaring pricing of a Chandigarh address – “The scarcity of land is one of the biggest factors driving Chandigarh’s soaring residential property prices. Unlike sprawling metropolitan cities that can expand into large peripheral areas, Chandigarh has a tightly defined geographical footprint of just about 114 sq km, leaving very little scope for creating new residential land within the city. Most of the prime sectors were developed decades ago, and the majority of their plots are already occupied, while the availability of vacant residential plots has dwindled sharply. This creates a classic supply-demand imbalance: a limited pool of land in established, highly sought-after neighbourhoods is being chased by affluent end-users, business families, NRIs, politicians and other high-net-worth buyers”.

An analysis of the top 10 registered sale deeds this year, from April to August 31, reflected a striking glimpse into how expensive residential land in Chandigarh’s established sectors has become.

On an average, Chandigarh Estate Office records around 500-550 registered deeds per month. The top 10 residential registered-deed transactions alone involved a combined consideration value of over Rs. 400 crores.

The second-highest deal was recorded in Sector 18, where a 1,212.8-square-yard plot, roughly 2.4 kanal, was sold for Rs 51.50 crore on August 31. Its collector value was around Rs 23.25 crore, putting the consideration about 121 per cent higher. Similarly, in Sector 19, a 1,500-square-yard plot, roughly three kanal, fetched Rs 45 crore on August 11.

A 1,014-square-yard plot, roughly two kanal, in Sector 33 was sold for Rs 36 crore, while a 1,001-square-yard plot, roughly two kanal, in Sector 28 changed hands for Rs 35 crore. Sector 15 appeared twice in the top 10. A 1,350-square-yard plot, roughly 2.7 kanal, fetched Rs 35 crore, while another measuring 943.5 square yards, roughly 1.9 kanal, was sold for Rs 25 crore.

One of the most revealing transactions came from Sector 10, where a plot measuring 500.5 square yards – roughly one kanal – was sold for Rs 27 crore. Although it ranked seventh in terms of total consideration, the property commanded the highest rate per square yard among the top 10 residential deals – nearly Rs 5.39 lakh per square yard. Its consideration value was around 109 per cent higher than its collector value of Rs 12.91 crore. Sector 8 too saw a premium transaction, with a 649.3-square-yard plot, roughly 1.3 kanal, sold for Rs 25.50 crore, translating into nearly Rs 3.93 lakh per square yard. The 10th -highest deal was in Sector 2, where a much larger 2,222.2-square-yard plot, roughly 4.4 kanal, was sold for Rs 24.65 crore.

Officials told The Indian Express that “the comparison between consideration and collector values further highlighted the premium being paid for properties in Chandigarh’s prime sectors. The sharpest difference among the top residential transactions was in Sector 18, where the Rs 51.50-crore consideration was about 121 per cent above the collector value. In Sector 10, the consideration was about 109 per cent higher than the collector value. The Sector 33 and Sector 28 transactions were approximately 91 per cent and 75 per cent higher, respectively. The Rs 100-crore Sector 9 deal was around 69 per cent above its collector value”.

“Most plots have either been constructed upon or are being held by owners because land in Chandigarh is a scarce and appreciating asset,” said Kamaljit Singh Panchhi, president, Property Federation, Chandigarh. Panchhi added that “the Rs 100-crore transaction may appear extraordinary to many, but rising land values in Punjab have created buyers for whom such purchases may not be out of reach”.

“Rs 100 crore may sound like a huge amount to an outsider, but for some landowners it is not necessarily an extraordinary figure anymore. There are farmers in Punjab who have sold just a few acres of land for around Rs 80 to 100 crore. For such people, buying a roughly four-kanal house in Chandigarh for Rs 100 crore may not be as big a deal as it appears. Chandigarh has very limited residential land, and the premium for properties in established sectors continues to rise,” he adds.