Impact of Hiked Floor Area Ratio in NCR
The Ministry of Urban Development has approved Delhi Development Authority’s proposal to increase Floor Area Ratio (FAR) norms for residential plots in the National Capital. Floor Area Ratio, abbreviated as FAR, is the percentage of a building’s aggregate floor area in relation to area of the land on which the property is constructed.
FAR for residential plots hiked to 200%
As per the announcement from the Urban Development Ministry, FAR for plots between 750 – 1,000 square meters has been hiked to 200%. Earlier, the Floor Area Ratio for plots in this size range was 150%. There is no change is the ground coverage of residential plots of this size range, and hence it remains unaffected at 50%. However, residential plots of larger area, i.e. with area more than 1000 square meters will be benefitted by this move by the Government, as these plots will be facilitated with additional ground coverage of 10%. The ground coverage for plots of this size range was earlier 40%, but now it has been hiked to 50%. Also, for residential plots with an area of over 1000 square meters, FAR has been hiked from current 120% to 200%.
Impact
Though the apartment sizes will increase, but with no change in density norms, the ticket size might increase. However, the impact will only be seen in some South and Central Delhi areas. These include Chankayapuri, Greater Kailash-II, Vasant Vihar, Anand Lok, Panchsheel Park, to name a few. Thus, this decision will only impact prime micro-markets.
Move welcomed and hailed by the realty sector
Talking to CommonFloor, Rohit Raj Modi, CREDAI President of NCR region said, “this move will address the rising problem of providing accommodation to all and in realising the dream of ‘Housing for All by 2022’. We know that rapid urbanization has already put a pressure on the limited land resource especially in Delhi. This extra FAR would definitely help developers with extra space and thus would help match the demand and supply gap in Delhi.”
More needs to be done!
Needless to mention that this decision of the Government has been appreciated by realty sector, especially as this move is likely to result in increase in the built up area of projects with larger plots. While the realty sector has hailed this hike in FAR, some in the sector have been prudent to ask for increase in density, height and number of units to make the positive move by the Government more effective.
“We are however waiting for clarification on the issue of change in density, number of dwelling units and height. We think that increase in FAR shall be effective if accompanied by increase in dwelling units, density and height,” adds Modi.
Increase in the number of dwellings built on the plot would lead to the increased supply, which in turn might bring the prices down. Also, at present, height restrictions on residential plots is 17.5 mt along with stilt parking provisions. Thus, if one floor is, let’s say 3-4 mt, then the building can have maximum of four floors. Hence, increase in height is also imperative.
However, many gibe this move by the Government as a strategy to lure electorates, especially as the Assembly elections are just a couple of months away.
