GMADA manages to sell 18,earns Rs 17.52 crore

Organised at the community centre in Sector 70,the auction attracted not more than 100 interested people. The GMADA press release,however,claimed that the auction “attracted a massive response”.

The 18 sites successfully auctioned included mostly booths which were sold in the range of Rs 35 lakh to Rs 1 crore depending on the location. On average the final bid price was almost 20 per cent over and above the reserve price. “This is good news for GMADA as also the market as in the last auctions our sites had fetched only about 5 to 10 per cent more the reserve price,” said GMADA additional chief administrator Manjit Brar.

In addition to the bid amount,the successful bidder was required to pay 2 per cent amount of the final bid with the authority as contribution to the “The Punjab State Cancer and Drug Addiction Treatment Infrastructure Fund”,something which came as news to many of the participants.

“The fact that we have to pay 2 per cent of the bid amount in addition to the bid amount was neither mentioned in the advertisement nor the auction brochure. That too led to the auction being such a flop show,” said Shailender Anand,chairman of the Mohali Property Consultants Association.

“Through this auction GMADA earned Rs 18 crore which means Rs 36 lakh were collected for the treatment of cancer patients in the state,” said Brar.

Out of the 66 sites,GMADA sold only three showroom sites at rates ranging from Rs 2.6 crore to Rs 2.5 crore. Some built-up booths were sold too. The reserve price for these showrooms was Rs 2.2 crore. The booths in Sector 67 were reserved for Rs 77 lakh and fetched almost Rs 82 lakh. A booth in Sector 59 reserved for Rs 1.06 crore fetched only Rs 1.07 crore. Similarly,a booth in Sector 71 reserved for Rs 69 lakh fetched Rs 69.25 lakh. A built-up booth in Sector 70 fetched only Rs 10,000 over the reserved price of Rs 37 lakh.

Anand pointed out that GMADA’s auctions were getting a poor response as there were better properties available in the market at much lower rates. “The plots and commercial sites being sold by the land owners who got their land acquired under the land pooling scheme for the IT city are much cheaper. Their SCOs are available in the range of less than Rs 1 crore. But GMADA rates are high,” he said. “Similarly the land pooling booth is available at Rs 7 to 12 lakh. Why would anyone be interested in GMADA’s property?”