Consequently, putting a number on the total area (and its value) of land belonging to the government is a challenge. The country’s Port Authorities certain hold a substantial chunk of it, with the actual size of their holdings in the range of 2.58 lakh acres, out of which approximately 20 per cent is not in use. The Airports Authority of India owns around 49,000 acres and media reports suggest that the defence services hold approximately 17 lakh acres.

The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) is the single-largest owner of land in the country. In fact, it has approximately 1.06 lakh acres of vacant land under its purview — most of it in locations where there is a shortage of housing. Certainly, these land holdings represent great opportunities to develop mass housing projects with private sector participation.

MONETISING LAND value:

the process TIMELINE

An interesting question arises when one considers the auctioning of these lands as a potential avenue for lightening fiscal deficit: how long would such a process take?

The time required for marketing these lands would depend on a number of factors. At the first level, the government would need to have a structured sale strategy and a phasing plan that would identify which lands need to be sold in the first phase, and so on.

Lands in urban areas, depending on their location, are likely to be sold at a relatively faster pace. This would, inter alia, entail the definition of ‘reserve prices’ for each of these land parcels. Given the extent, spread, and locational diversity of these lands, such a strategic planning exercise could easily take six months to a year.

Another important fact is that these lands should not be released for sale too quickly. The sudden supply infusion could seriously impact property prices around the areas in question. Further, the market’s appetite for consumption of these lands will play a critical role in how quickly they will be absorbed.

Market appetite is a function of current economic growth, the outlook for various industry sectors, liquidity in the system and the potential demand for end products that will be developed on these lands. Consequently, phased sales of such land holdings could begin in a period of about six to nine months from the date that all internal approvals and sanctions for sale are received by the respective government departments.

However, this period is subject to a lot of externalities — including global market trends, domestic economic outlook, future outlook of the cities and the areas where these lands are located, and the market’s perception for the future growth potential of these lands and their micro-markets. Overall, given the potential scale, the sale of all or most of the government’s land portfolio, could take a number of years. In such a scenario, it would be best to obtain independent valuations of the land parcels just before they are brought into the market for sale.

Potential Roadblocks

Even then, the sale of such land would not be without challenges:

Redefinition of land use and permitted developments at these surplus lands would be subject to critical scrutiny, as valuations of lands are highly contingent on the scale and type of development permitted at the locations in question.

Valuations of each of these land parcels could become a matter of contention and impact land prices in the vicinity.

Given the potentially massive size of lands, finding buyers with high-ticket size appetites would be tricky. Moreover, such buyers would likely be in a rather good negotiating position and may ask for discounts. Consequently, these land parcels may need to be subdivided to reduce ticket sizes and generate a higher level of competition. This exercise would become time-consuming.

Market appetite is very sensitive to economic growth and outlook. Consequently, buyers might become cautious while making such high-ticket purchases. This means that marketing horizons — or the time periods for completion of sales — could get extended even further.

Taking all these factors into account, it is evident that adopting a comprehensive, well-planned strategy along with a phased sale plan would be the best way to go for maximising returns from sales of these surplus lands.