HYDERABAD: Homeowners and realty experts are claiming that land prices are being artificially hiked by vested interests, citing the HMDA’s action on Monday to cancel land allotments to winners of an e-auction in Mokila, located in the southwest corner of the city, over non-payment-of-costs.
In the auction, a square yard fetched as much as Rs 1 lakh, but the bidder was later unable to pay the first instalment.
Experts said that following the auction, the value of adjourning properties also increased, which may have benefitted a cartel of realtors.
A realty expert, not wishing to be named, said: “Such huge investments in land are for high-rise clusters. But there is also a flip side to this, when high-rise clusters are formed, natural resources decrease and infrastructure is burdened.”
The expert said, “Housing should always be affordable so that middle-class citizens can also aspire to own a house.”
Padmavathi Kotamraju, a retired Group 1 officer of the Central government, said, “The real estate cost in Hyderabad is so high that even after my retirement when I returned to the city, I am not able to buy a house in this city with all my savings. When I left the city a decade ago, the situation was favourable to the common man.”
She said, “It’s everyone’s dream to own a house; there should be regularisations to swelling prices.”
