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Emerald Floors, Emaar MGF, Gurgaon.
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Delhi has been seeing a wave of low-rise buildings recently. Sapna Kulshrestha studies the shift in trend that is responsible for gradually changing the capital’s skyline.

Delhi has innumerable high-rises with many new ones coming up in and around the city and the National Capital Region (NCR). However, there is an interesting development gradually manifesting itself in the capital city – the rising number of low-rise apartments. Many real estate developers discovered that the option of low-rise apartments (a building limited to ground plus three to five floors only) was something the public wanted as well.

This trend seems to be a reaction to the slowdown in the economy and the subsequent dampening of the real estate market that happened in the past few years. The situation forced builders and developers to think of different formats so as to attract all types of buyers.

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Besides, the construction of low-rise apartments rather than high-rise buildings was an attractive option for lower and middle-income buyers – as the cost of construction is less for such developments and the benefits can be transferred, making the purchase affordable for them.

Vineet Singh, senior vice president–domestic (North, East & West) and international sales of property, www.99acres.com says, “The plotted area concept was what Delhi started with before it moved on to an apartment-style living with multi-storeyed constructions by the DDA (Delhi Development Authority) and later by private developers during the real estate boom. With the slowdown, developers are trying out various formats to attract buyers.”

An erstwhile concept
Delhi already had the concept of registering independent floors in low-rise buildings for freehold properties, later extended even to DDA flats. Now, with Haryana allowing registration of independent floors, the market is flush with independent floor launches which demonstrate the demand for such projects.

Another reason for the increase in low-rise apartments, especially in the suburbs and satellite towns is because the permissible covered area on a plot of land depends on the FSI available in that area.

Thus, while in centralised locations of the city a builder would opt for high-rise buildings to consume all available FSI, for the suburbs, which have lower FSI, a developer would have no choice but to build low-rise projects.

“Low-rise buildings are the forerunners of the Indian residential property sector, and continue to represent its bulk. However, the concept is also highly location-specific and has a lot to do with available FSI in any given location,” says Subhankar Mitra, AVP-Strategic Consulting, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj.

Experts in urban development also feel that the rising development of satellite townships would further push up the demand for low-rise apartments, which can be an answer to the intense pressure on civic infrastructure in the core areas of cities.

Traditionally, people in Delhi are used to living in individual houses rather than multi-storeyed buildings. Therefore, independent floors have been rather popular, with preference for bungalow-style apartments.

Also, with the easing of the ceiling on plotted floor apartments a few months ago in the NCR, the demand for such projects has witnessed a sharp increase.