City-based construction firm IVRCL infrastructure and projects has plans to sell its high priced pieces of land, including the 25-crore information technology special economic zone (SEZ) plot in NOIDA, and purchase low-cost property in the light of the downside in real estate business in the country. “With the real estate being what it is now, our first priority is selling high-cost housing,” Chairman and Managing Director of the Rs.4, 200-crore company, E Sudhir Reddy said. IVRCL currently has 120 acres in NOIDA, about 1, 000 acres in Pune and 200 acres in Panvel (Navi Mumbai), besides large extent of land in Hyderabad, Nagpur and Visakhapatnam. The market value of these plots was estimated at over Rs.4, 000 crore. On a pre-qualification basis, IVRCL has been allotted 120 acres in NOIDA a year-and-a-half-ago. This includes 25 acres meant for setting up an IT SEZ. While the SEZ land was allotted at a rate of Rs.7.5 crore per acre, the remaining 95 acres were allotted at about Rs.12 crore per acre. As the rules do not allow sale of SEZ land IVRL proposes to raise unfinished structures and dispose off the property. “The cost of the shell construction will be Rs.2, 000 per sft. I will transfer this built-up area to the purchaser at the same cost. However, I will get a premium on the land cost,” Reddy said adding that while the company purchased SEZ land for about Rs.17, 000 per square metre, the minimum upset price fixed by the government for bidding in that area now stood at about Rs.25, 000 per square metre. Though the disposal of the SEZ property essentially means sale of constructed area, land cost will be added in the transaction. In view increasing input costs, the company had also decided to go in for low-cost housing. “We are currently building 9 million square feet of low-cost houses spread over 3, 000 acres in different cities. The highest price we are charging is Rs.2, 200 per sft,” he said.                                                                                      Courtesy: - Business Standard dt.22 July 2008