The land row in Greater Noida, coupled with the Allahabad high court’s order quashing land acquisition in Chak and Sahberi villages, has led to a fall in demand for real estate in the area, and a commensurate rise in demand in nearby unaffected areas.

Developers deny any fall in prices, but admit that sales have been affected in areas where land acquisition has been mired in controversy.

Supertech, whose 50-acre Eco Village II project includes 10 acres in the disputed Sahberi area, confirms that there has been a drop in fresh booking of real estate in the area.

“There has been no effect on the prices, but sales in the affected areas have been impacted by about 5-10 per cent,” Anshuman Dwivedi, head of sales and marketing for Supertech’s Eco Village II, told Financial Chronicle. “The public sentiment is cautious and will continue to be so until the issue gets resolved.”

He was quick to clarify, though, that those who have already put money in the project would not be affected. “There is no shifting going on for our project, we have already sold more than 10,000 apartments there and word of mouth references are helping. The impact, however, is on us and not our investors, as we have not gained possession of that part of land (in Sahberi) that we wanted,” he said.

Other developers say sales are affected not just in the disputed areas but in the entire Noida Extension. Vineet Sharma, vice-president of sales and marketing, Ajnara Homes, said, “Although prices have not gone down, bookings have fallen. The entire market has been affected.”

He said the demand slump would continue till confidence was restored. “Right now, the customer is on the back foot, and will think 10 times before booking.”

PTI in a report on Sunday quoted Anil Sharma, the chairman and managing director of property developer Amrapali, whose project had been affected due to the denotification, as saying, "The housing demand in Noida Extension has declined by about 20 per cent. Before the high court decision we were selling 50 units a day. Now it is about 40," he was quoted as saying.

Amrapali’s 105-acre Smart City project in Sahberi village is to build 5,700 flats, 4,000 of which have already been booked. The builder has now decided to shift almost 1,200 bookings to its Dream Valley project, just a “stone’s throw” away from the Smart City project. “Investor apprehensions have forced developers to promise either a refund of booking money or shifting the buyers to another project,” said Santosh Kumar, chief executive officer for operations of Jones Lang La Salle Meghraj.

Despite the assurances, buyers are now looking at property in areas free of problems of land acquisition. “Prices are going up for other projects which are in their final stages and are located in areas with no such problems,” Kumar said, adding that “there is a huge surge in demand for those projects.”

He said that although prices in the affected projects had not gone down, the threat remained until there was clarity on the issue. “People are in a wait-and-watch mode. If the outcome is negative when clarity comes, there would certainly be some price correction.” Clarity will only come once the issue gets resolved. The Greater Noida Industrial Authority is renegotiating with farmers to acquire land afresh.

In its May 12 and 13 rulings in two separate but similar cases the Allahabad high court quashed the acquisition of land by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority in Chak and Sahberi in Greater Noida. A day after annulling the acquisition of nearly 157 hectares in Greater Noida, the court on Friday annulled the acquisition of 72 hectares in Surajpur.