New international airport: A game-changer for Pune real estate

The following is the report by Arvind Jain, Managing Director – Pride Group

Airports have always proven beneficial to cities in terms of their potential to boost real estate development and overall economic activity. In the first place, they enhance business activity, and this brings with it a greater demand for commercial real estate. The housing market of any city has close correlation with its commercial activity – business spawns employment, and employment spawns purchasing power and therefore appetite for home ownership. It also boosts the requirement for rental housing from transient workforces.

The effect of Pune’s proposed new international airport will be two-fold. In the first place, it will increase Pune’s viability as a business destination, and thereby boost interest by more and more domestic and international companies to open up shop here, or to expand their existing operations. This will have a multiplier effect on the demand for residential real estate, as well. Secondly, the city’s overall demand profile for real estate will change, as demand will be driven towards areas surrounding the new airport site. Airports are massive infrastructure undertakings that generate residential demand from people employed there, as well as the various adjunct services associated with them.

Rajgurunagar, which is the proposed location for the new international airport, lies approximately 40 kilometres to the North of Pune City. This location already enjoys multiple economic drivers since it is close to the established industrial hubs of Talegaon, Chakan and PCMC. The arrival of the new international airport will push both economic and real estate growth towards these areas, which have had some profiling disadvantages so far. The fact that they have carried the ‘industrial area’ image in the past has resulted in them developing primarily as budget housing destinations for blue-collar residents.

With the new international airport at Rajgurunagar, this is set to change. We will see higher demand for larger, better-positioned residential complexes. Moreover, the airport will also bring with it an increased requirement for a more comprehensive network of connecting roads, which will definitely boost the overall viability of real estate in all adjoining areas.

Areas which enjoy favourable positioning from both Pune City and PCMC are going to be among the biggest gainers from the new international airport. There will be tremendous demand for quality housing in locations which provide good connectivity and ready access to both Pune and Rajgurunagar. Among these, Charoli has already established itself as Pune’s new township district with the arrival of an ultra-modern 400-plus acre integrated township. More importantly, Charoli and adjoining areas like Dhanori provide ready access to both the existing airport as well as the new international airport.