Real estate prices and rising pollution levels seem to making strange bedfellows. The National Capital Region (NCR) has seen one of the steepest rise in real estate prices in the past few years along with a sharp decline in the air quality level.
According to Anarock Property Consultants, average residential prices have gone up 57% between 2019 and the end of Q3FY25. At the end of the September quarter, average prices in NCR touched `7,200 per square feet.
Residential prices in Gurugram jumped the most in the past five years from 7,500 per sq ft in 2019 to19,500 per sq ft in 2024, a rise of 160%, according to data analytics firm PropEquity. It’s a strange coincidence that Gurugram’s air quality level has also been declining at an alarming pace.
Also Read Delhi air pollution: AQI hits ‘severe plus’ levels as smog engulfs city Quantum of solace: How much relief and support do governments offer the public? How Telangana’s Rs 500 bonus on fine paddy sparked a 61% cultivation surge – Here’s what it means for farmers Delhi AQI remains in ‘severe’ category for 5th consecutive day even as government imposes GRAP III
Gulam Zia, executive director at property consultant Knight Frank, puts the nail on the head by pointing out buyer apathy. Buyers, he says, simply don’t care about the quality of air or water. “People don’t mind buying apartments in front of a burial ground or crematorium. This is the reality of real estate,” he said.
Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath recently proposed linking property prices to air and water quality in cities. He also mooted a “discount on property prices” to solve the pollution problem. “Maybe a property price discount for the quality of air and water is the solution. If economics accounted for this, maybe we would all figure this out. Essentially the air and water quality determine the rate for the property,” Kamath posted on X on November 24.
Also, this would probably turn a property owner into the owner of the place, and would have better odds of fixing it if working as a group, he said.
While Delhi is getting all the attention, the air quality index (AQI) isn’t good in most urban areas in the country. Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and others are included in areas with very poor air quality,
» Read More
