New Delhi : The Construction World Architect and Builder Awards (CWAB) organized by FIRST Construction Council has added a new dimension this year to recognize regional players – architects, builders and interior designers, who are striving towards excellence. In the process of appreciating the talent in Building industry of Northern region, nominees for 13^th CWAB awards 2018 were announced today in New Delhi.  

 

Reports indicate that the real estate sector in India likely to reach a market size of $180 billion by 2020, from $126 billion reported in 2015. What’s more, the housing sector’s contribution to the Indian GDP is expected to almost double to more than 11 per cent by 2020.

 

While initiating the roundtable Pratap Padode Founder First Construction Council said “With reference to India’s North region, smart cities​are yet to provide the required fillip to the northern real estate sector. However, infrastructure development is spurring growth for the real estate market across cities especially with metro rail projects. The contours of the cities and therefore the best selling locations will undergo a drastic shift. There is a race among cities to win top spots in cleanliness, low-crime rates, water availability, ease of commute etc and budgets spent on smart cities and AMRUT will hit economic goals going forward. Similarly ‘affordable housing projects’ will create shifts in real estate hotspots.”

 

Cities with the smart tag in the North have a long way to go, he said. Smart cities among the northern states include Pasighat and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh; Guwahati in Assam; Chandigarh; Faridabad and Karnal in Haryana; Shimla and Dharamasala in Himachal Pradesh; Srinagar and Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir; Imphal in Manipur; Aizawl in Mizoram; Kohima in Nagaland; New Delhi; Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar in Punjab; Namchi and Gangtok in Sikkim; Lucknow, Agra, Kanpur, Varanasi, Jhansi, Allahabad, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Moradabad and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh; and Dehradun in Uttarakhand, among others.

 

“Delhi-NCR continues to be attractive to end-users and investors. As per ANAROCK data, the housing supply in Delhi over the last two years has been fairly low as compared to its counterparts – Gurugram and Noida. Consequently, the pockets that offer affordable or mid-segment projects have been performing relatively better than the expensive ones – such as Greater Kailash II, Panchsheel Park and South Extension II, to name a few. In 2018 as well, it is the affordable micro-markets which are driving real estate growth in the city. Also, with the dust of new policies like RERA and GST finally settling, 2018 is definitely seeing Gurugram’s realty market heading northward. Among many other factors, the increased economic activity of 2017 and a number of key infrastructure upgrades such as the widening of NH 8, expansion of Sohna Road and rapid metro connectivity have served the city’s realty market well” Mr Padode added

 

Giving CWAB Regionals North 2018 a perfect start, Falguni Padode, Co-founder and Group Managing Editor, CONSTRUCTION WORLD, spoke on the methodology and journey of CWAB. “The model started with a simple ceremony in 2006. In 2011, the awards took on a theme – one year ‘green’, one year ‘youth’, one year ‘glocal’, and so on. In 2016, with the SMART moves made by the Government and growth in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities gaining ground, we reached out to projects across the country and added a whole new category: NOTEWORTHY PROJECTS, and with that, a whole new process as well. And this year, we have added yet another dimension, to recognize Regional Players, which is what brings us all to this event today.”

 

Padode went on to announce the names of the nominees in the North region this year. This was followed by a roundtable discussion on ‘What Buyers Want?’ Moderated by Shriyal Sethumadhavan,Senior Assistant Editor, CONSTRUCTION WORLD. The panel comprised interior designer Lipika Sud, Lipika Sud Interiors; Sheetal Rakheja, Co-Chair, IGBC Delhi Chapter and Managing Partner AEON Design & Development; Ar. Dikshu Kukreja, Owner CP Kukreja Associates; Aninda Bagchi, Senior Associate Director- Project Management, CBRE; Pradeep Jain, Chairman, Parsvnath Developers.

 

The panelists discussed and deliberated upon the buyer preferences in the North region. The discussion revolved around the real estate market in the North region, followed by the role of design and planning to meet buyer requirement; how a strategic location with best-in-class amenities attract more buyers; also, what’s trending – innovative and smart building technologies that meet buyer needs.

 

In the series of regional event the first event was conducted in Kolkata (For east region), then in Pune ( for West Region ) and today’s event in New Delhi was to cover the Northern Region and similar events to follow in Bengaluru (for the South region) on July 25^th 2018.The final national event – CWAB 2018 – will take place on September 12^th in Mumbai, where winners from all four regions will be announced.