Unlocking Underground Real Estate: A case of Connaught Place, New Delhi’

Abstract

With the onset of 2030, the demographic projections are expected to initiate a global urban expansion, which succeeds the entire urban land cover so far in human history. Cities host an annual growth of approximately 74 million new residents, most of which is in form of urban sprawl (WSP Global , 2018). Sharing this global city character, New Delhi exhibits rising sprawl influenced by upcoming urban centres in its periphery. The rapid rate of urbanization lays pressure on various spatial aspects of the city including transportation, urban redevelopment, rising land prices and primarily, existing real estate. Vertical expansion has been seen as a solution to promote compactness of a city. However, in a city like Delhi where city centre (Connaught Place) holds immense heritage value and current restrictions on vertical expansion, underground construction has proved to be a sustainable approach, creating new opportunities for economic as well real estate aspects. The current underground space development cases, especially in eastern Asia (including cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing), has been restricted to infrastructure and public transit on the basis of financial feasibility. The land shortage in these metro cities creates an urgency to consider sectors like commercial and hospitality in near future for UUS (Isocarp; ITACUS, 2015). Development of underground spaces in Delhi has shown key trends in enhanced quality of life, considering the current infrastructure expansion like MRTS systems. This has created a channel of nodes all along the city where commercial as well as mixed uses of surrounding UUS (Urban Underground Spaces) Show a potential for integration with surface real estate assets. The current city centre, Connaught Place (according to Delhi Masterplan, 2021) houses a real estate of 9th most expensive commercial rental spaces in the world (CBRE, 2019), with rising retail as well as commercial rents with low vacancy levels. The development of underground spaces here dates back to 1970s, and recent expansion ranges in metro stations as well as underground parking spaces. Considering these factors, the thesis intends to analyse the potential of real estate development underground of Connaught Place, in-turn suggesting appropriate real-estate based product mix which supplements the demand-supply dynamics above ground.ix The study also intends to explore measures to make underground development more feasible and replicable for similar expansions throughout the city to create a parallel real estate market which is currently underexplored. This will lend insights to the way forward to underground cities, their viability and need. The idea of moving underground brings forward a potential pool of land resources which can be planned for maximum efficiency and optimized use. There is a requirement of investigation, evaluation and estimation of viable real estate assets underground. Hence, the research would also consider analysing the micro and macro scale catchments functioning across the complex to suggest feasible real estate models for comprehensive development of several real estate sectors promoting an inclusive land market.