Opportunity in adversity: How smog is fuelling a rush for farmlands

Last Saturday, three lifelong friends from Lajpat Nagar set off for Alwar, but this time it wasn’t for one of their usual weekend get togethers. Instead, they were on a mission, a serious quest to find the perfect farmland for their future holiday homes. “We have visited Alwar to look for farmlands. We are seriously planning to build our holiday homes there. It is a comfortable drive from South Delhi. As Delhi has become a gas chamber, we thought of buying and building our small houses in the lap of nature,” says Manoj Sehgal, who deals in cables.

Real estate experts note a growing trend among affluent Delhiites to own a piece of land in rural areas and convert them into vacation homes with lots of greenery and landscaping. The appalling state of air quality has proved to be a blessing in disguise for the real estate sector of Delhi NCR. With the increasing struggle to breathe in the city, many Delhiites are seeking a healthier lifestyle beyond the urban limits.

Many people are looking for farmlands in areas like Alwar, Meerut, beyond Greater Noida, and other parts of the NCR region. “When most people in Delhi and NCR think of farmhouses, they imagine huge properties spread over dozens of acres. However, now people in Delhi are looking for smaller farmlands. They are much cheaper if you go beyond 75 to 100 kilometres from Delhi compared to farms in the capital. One can easily buy farmland of around 1,000 yards in the range of ₹1 crore to ₹1.25 crores in smaller cities,” informs Devinder Gupta, a noted South Delhi-based realty advisor.

A lucrative investment

According to Nikhil Jain, a senior real estate professional, “While people are buying farmlands to build their weekend homes, investing in farmlands has also emerged as one of the most lucrative and stable investment avenues. It offers a unique blend of financial growth and sustainability.”

Jain informs the farmland market has consistently delivered high returns. Data shows that agricultural land has appreciated at an average annual rate of 10-15% in many regions, with some areas witnessing even higher growth due to urban expansion and infrastructure development.

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Real estate watchers say that many professionals and first-time entrepreneurs are now earning enough to invest in farmlands. After owning a house or two in Delhi-NCR, they often consider buying farmland outside the national capital, where it is more affordable.

“More often than not, they are young businessmen and IT as well as finance professionals,” adds Jain.

“Without fail, my office gets around half a dozen queries from prospective farmland buyers,” says realty advisor Gupta. “Those who call us own one or, in some cases, more than one property in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, or Greater Noida. They look for farmlands and are very serious buyers. The number of queries for such properties crosses even a dozen on weekends. Weekends are the busiest days in our field.”

There are others also. For example, Dinesh Choudhary shares a personal connection to farmland, as his family once owned significant tracts of land in South Delhi, which were later acquired by the government to build IIT Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Reflecting on his journey, Dinesh says, “Once our land was gone, my family purchased a house in Pilanji in Sarojini Nagar. It was a bad deal for all of us. Now, after consulting with my family, I am again going back to my family roots. I will either buy farmland in Greater Noida or around Alwar. I am going to build a small farmhouse there with Goan architecture and spend my weekends in the lap of greenery with no pollution, along with my family.”

The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist and author of two books ‘Gandhi’s Delhi: April 12, 1915-January 30, 1948 and Beyond’ and ‘Dilli Ka Pehla Pyar – Connaught Place’