Hyd, the new real estate hotspot
	July 21,Hyderabad: Imagine property prices going up three times in just two days. Well, the ones who are celebrating are the property holders of Kokapet in Andhra Pradesh. A property in Kokapet village, 20 kilometres from Hyderabad, is now worth no less than Rs 12 crore an acre. Quite a huge leap from the Rs 4 crore per acre it was valued at just two days ago. The reason behind it is the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority's (HUDA) auction of 65 acres, which has raked in over Rs 650 crore. The biggest spenders were Prestige Group from Bangalore who spent Rs 120 crore on 10 acres of land. "We haven't made any plans, we think the land has lots of potential which is why we have bought it," says VP, business development of Prestige estates, Swaroop Anish. The land is five km from the high-tech city that houses Microsoft, Wipro, ISB and other software companies. It will be connected to the rest of the city and the new international airport by the proposed outer ring road. "We were expecting almost 10 lakh in the first site we were very happy to see land going for almost 14 and half an acre," says secretary, HUDA, P Venkataram Reddy. Among the buyers were Lake Point Builders, My Home Constructions, Today Hotels and IBC Knowledge Park. HUDA now expects residential high-rises, IT parks, hotels and offices to come up on the property. Real estate analysts in Hyderabad have pointed fingers at HUDA in the past for jacking up land rates unreasonably in the city through their auctions. While the Kokapet auction could have been a similar one, HUDA has managed to achieve its target, which was Rs 650 crore – it needed to finish its pet outer ring road project.