Punjab Real Estate: Punjabis Wanna Come Home

Hot speculation about young and old NRI techies wanting to come home has led entrepreneur T.S. Dhillon to chalk out plans for a comfortable housing society for NRIs in Mohali. Inaugurating his NRI Services Centre in Sector 34, Chandigarh, Dhillon said his impetus for planning a housing society was the number of NRIs wishing to return home, or those that were on the verge of permanently severing ties with the homeland due to long pending property disputes.

Settled in UK, Dhillon, an NRI himself, is acutely aware of the issues and problems NRIs face when they come to India. Talking about reverse brain drain, he agrees NRI professionals seeking greener pastures are returning to India in hordes, followed by Punjabi elders who even after years of living in firang land could not get the wheat and mustard fields of Apna Punjab out of their minds. Lonely, with children busy with careers in USA, UK or elsewhere, elderly NRIs are just as keen to return to Punjab as the young techs wanting to be a part of and to participate in India's upbeat economy.

Wanting to attract them with a lucrative proposition, Dhillon says: 'We have planned a society exclusively for NRIs in Mohali. And, I am sure once we start talks with the government; they would be willing to give us land.'

The other ground breaking news to jolt the Indian real estate industry is the 50:50 joint venture forged between Delhi's DLF Universal and $5-billion worth UK developers, Laing O'Rourke. A coming together of two real estate development Goliaths, with a view to providing world class construction and infrastructure projects in the country. Already, with a presence in Chandigarh, perhaps, DLF and its new partner will be roped in to construct the NRI Township.

If that doesn't attract the NRI crowd, yoga and meditation centres, rejuvenation spas are the next new hot options in real estate investment. From Anandas in the Himalayas to Satvik resorts, Bhimtal, INYS and Shreyas in Bangalore, now a little closer to home, 'The Kikar Lodge', a nature resort is as much in demand with the young as with the old, for hosting corporate meets, business dinners and family outings. Nestled amidst 1800 acres of forest, 70-kms from Chandigarh, the Lodge is a 2.5-acre resort that has received immense response from Jullunder, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Delhi, as well as, the inbound traffic to Manali.

Encouraged by its reception, owner Amarinder Singh Chopra has two similar projects in Kasauli in the pipeline. The resort built at a cost of Rs. 2.5-crores is in close proximity to Anandpur Sahib that means it is absolutely sold out at the time of the Hola Mohalla.

An NRI township, a resort that provides luxury camping facilities, quad biking, organic milk, vegetables and fruit, will attract the NRIs, as the return of Punjab de Puttars sends the already soaring real estate prices rocketing skywards! As the whole of India undergoes a mega transformation, a transformation that will allow it to compete with the best of the best world class cities, does anyone want to go to firang land?