There’s a lot of people outside Goa, the rest of India, particularly Hyderabad, Bombay, Bangalore, Delhi who want to invest in Goa real estate market, who want to live in Goa, who want to build lovely homes and go contribute to the area not just architecturally but also through their experiences and come and make it a better space and they are lost because they don’t know where to go they don’t know how to start and many of them have made some huge mistakes when it comes to real estate and lost a lot of money in the last 25 years.
In this post, we’ll take a look at Goa real estate market post COVID, what are the hot locations, where to_buy, where to avoid buying.
Hopefully, after reading it, it will help you save some money in the long term.
Goa Real Estate Market during COVID
During COVID, the Goa real estate market didn’t take a hit, especially residential.
It was stable, in fact the land prices shot up; isn’t that interesting.
People wanted to move away from the metros and come and settle in Goa.
You might be already familiar with the beach areas which are crowded but as you move further into the villages, into the countryside there’s so much more space.
it’s cleaner, it’s greener, the people are nice, they’re happier. Overall, it’s a better quality of life and all the intelligent Indians have decided that we need a house in Goa.
Therefore, there was an increase in Goa real estate market (residential land and residential villas).
What happened to the apartments?
The apartments were stable and some fell. Builders were stuck with so much of Inventory.
This is because, in Goa at the center where all the action happens, people have flooded it with money.
And then there are empty apartments that some have bought thinking that they’ll be a great investment.
You have many builders who promise you great things. They’ll tell you your apartment will be worth 50% more or 100% more and they give you these examples of people who have become millionaires.
It doesn’t work like that in Goa real estate, the rental market is quite sad during the off season. You’ll have many people who bought apartments and who are stuck.
Suppose someone has spent a Crore on an apartment in Goa. What is the real cost of that Apartment?
You spend 1 Crore on the apartment, you spend 10 percent on the taxes and brokerage so that’s 1.10 Crores.
That 1.10 Crores that he spent, if you had to put it in the bank you’d get roughly about 10 lakhs a year.
Now over 3 years that’s roughly about 30 lakhs, that’s almost 30 percent of the value of the property.
He’s not going to recover that money because the same builder is going to sell an apartment in his next complex for 1.2 crores.
So it doesn’t make sense for you to purchase an apartment at that price.
Goa Real Estate Market: What to Buy, What to Avoid?
Coming back to the earlier point, what are the hot locations you should buy and what should you avoid in Goa Real Estate?
You should avoid apartments for the moment and look only at land and villas.
For land and villas, your budget has to increase.
The land is roughly about 12 to 15,000 in the locations that we suggest.
Villas under construction or ready villas are roughly about 3 to 5 Crores like the decent kind of villas.
Where to Buy Flats/Apartments
Let’s start with apartments with which areas to look at, which areas to avoid.
If you’re really keen on an apartment, go in for a second sale apartment.
Something that someone is selling because either it’s a distressed sale or they’re not really interested in Goa anymore, they’ve moved abroad, emigrated, etc.
Dabolim
Flats here are centrally located and are at an equal distance from the party hotspots of north goa and from the laid-back beaches of south goa.
Projects here are close to the airport, railway station and the harbour port and is an ideal location to be situated in.
The area is rapidly developing and the property prices are expected to shoot up once the new Zuari bridge is operational.
Kadamba Plateau
In Kadamba Plateau, you have some lovely, beautiful apartments but many of them are second sale.
I’ve seen something that’s about 200, 300 square metre apartments for one and a half, two crores.
With a beautiful view of the backwaters of the Divar island and that is something that’s worth the money.
Siolim
You might get nice apartments in a place called Siolim. You’ll find beautiful apartment complexes, 50-100 flats with really nice swimming pools.
You get a mix of tourists, some foreigners, mainly Russians who are working and who are living here, during the winter.
You also have good Indians, artists, musicians, designers living there because Siolim is close to Morjim, so you can drive there.
It also has nice little in-roads and it’s quite idyllic, it’s quite a nice place to live actually to have an apartment or a villa.
Dona Paula
Dona Paula can be interesting because it’s on top of the hill, you’ve got the view of the ocean and then you come down and then you enter into Panjim city.
Now, Dona Paula has some older apartments that were quite nice and that the owners may want to dispose of so you may get great value that you have new bills that are coming up with 2-300 apartments, those are hideous.
Those have been on the market for ages, some of them are ready, some of them are under construction; do not buy them!
Where to Avoid?
Nobody wants to be in that area anymore. There’s a sewage problem, drainage problem, you get all the wrong kind of people coming in there.
You have all these Dhabas and it’s just a mess, it’s like a big giant market and you don’t want to be there if you have any appreciation for a decent life.
Where to Buy Villas?
Assagao, it’s a nice place but now the prices have gone through the roof.
We suggest Moira, Nachinola, and Aldona are great places to buy villas.
Anjuna, good again but it’ll be quite expensive.
Para is nice because it’s on the cusp of Assagao so you don’t get the Assagao prices but you still get the value for money. There is capital appreciation there.
Siolim, again, is a nice place.
If you can find Morjim, then there is nothing like it but for some reason we don’t recommend it because first of all, in Morjim, a lot of the land was agricultural orchards or forest.
So someone through some crooked means, some local, government officials, have converted it with the builder and they’ve built these apartments or villas.
Now, apart from a few really high-end signature villas in Morjim, most of them are quite hideous, box styled with LED lights which is not exciting.
So a quick recap,
Villas:
- Assagao
- Moira
- Nachinola
- Aldona
- Anjuma
- Para
- Siolim
- Morjim
Avoid: Calangute, Baga, Arpor
Where to Buy Land in Goa?
Land in Goa is exciting and interesting and this is for those of you who like to build and add value.
If you are someone who enjoys good architecture, our suggestion is hiring a architect in Goa because they know the lay of the land and we have some very good architects in Goa.
If you hire an architect from your city and you bring him to Goa, he’s not going to have the time to do your site visits.
You’ll hire a structural engineer over there, he’ll have to come here.
Think about the Goans, think about giving us also some employment and, at least,
if it’s a Goan architect he might engage a local contractor so then people in the village also get work.
So there will be no animosity against you that you’ve come, you’ve built your home and you built high walls and then you’ve boxed everybody out.
No, spread the love, spread the wealth.
Now, coming to where to_buy land.
Assagao
In recent years, whatever the land is there has already been bought by Delhiites.
Whatever’s remaining has some title issues, there are scores of properties over there and they’ve always been riddled with some title issues.
And the chances are that you will not be able to find out that they have title issues but if it’s too good to be true then it’s definitely too good to be true.
Moira, Nachinola, Aldona
Very good location because we’ve got an international school, we’ve got the back waters, a lot of writers and artists have moved there.
This is something for someone who is well-heeled, someone who has that aesthetic sense, someone who really cares about Goa, who wants to add value by building something really beautiful, really iconic.
Someone who wants a capital appreciation as well so you buy a nice plot of land and you build something beautiful.
You buy a thousand, two thousand, three thousand square metres build one house at least you are preventing the builders from coming in and putting 100 apartments, 200 apartments.
In this way, you’re saving Goa, you’re keeping it green so if you have a 1000 square metre of real estate with a 300-400 hundred square metre house, you have 700 hundred square metres of green where you plant fruit trees and this is what a lot of older generation used to do, they used to make sure that their gardens were full of fruit bearing trees such as chiku, mango, papaya, coconut, bananas.
And you don’t have to spend too much money to even maintain it due to Goa’s natural monsoon.
So buy land, build a beautiful house, engage a Goan architect and your life will be much better.
Prices
Prices in Moira, Nachinola, Aldona are between 12 to 15000.
Don’t get spooked by these brokers who tell you it’s 18-20,000,it’s not!
Massive appreciation, if you buy at 15000 today, within three years the land will be about 25-30,000.
Assagao, it has become expensive now with people asking 30-40,000.
It probably is not worth it as there hardly is going to be any appreciation and it won’t go more than that.
Para, Siolim are very good areas. If you can get there, it’s nothing like it.
The prices are 18-20,000 but may go up to 22,000 thousand.
Even at 22,000 thousand if you’re getting like 1-2,000 square metres go ahead and buy it.
It can be great if you can get in Morjim but you have to make sure it’s settlement land.
If it is an orchard land, you’ll have to get the right people on board to have it converted for you legally.
Where to Avoid?
Avoid buying land again in Baga, Calangute, Candolim like it’s the plague.
There used to be beautiful beaches, lovely, quiet, pristine but now it’s a mess with slums and horrible conditions.
Move to the countryside, move to the villages, you’ll be much happier. You can build a beautiful house and it’ll be a great investment value.