Lot is being said and written about smart cities in the media. Most of these tend to be economic mumbo-jumbo focusing on lofty urban planning perspectives and economic hypotheses. Here we attempt to simplify smart cities for you by laying out the 5 most important things you need to know about smart cities.
1. What is a smart city and how is it different?
The objective of the Indian government’s ‘Smart Cities Initiative’ is to improve the quality of urban living (e.g. infrastructure, environment, governance) for all residents through with the use of Smart Technologies. Here is an illustrative list of smart solutions that will be available for the residents for smart cities. (source: Ministry of Urban Development guidelines on smart cities)
2. Will living in a smart city be expensive?
NO. The smart initiatives and solutions deployed in a smart city are aimed at reducing overall costs and improving productivity through the use of technology. Further smart city implementation will mostly come as a subsidy from government. So there will be no additional burden on the residents who live in a smart city.
3. Should I invest in a greenfield or brownfield smart city?
This is a tricky one. While converting an existing city to smart city (brownfield venture) is likely to be more affordable, a greenfield smart city is likely to be netter planned and can make use of more revolutionary ideas. However a greenfield smart city is likely to run into land acquisition issues given the current controversies around land acquisition bill. Net-net India will have a right mix of greenfield and brownfield smart cities and will provide enough opportunity to investors who are inclined to either of them.
4. Will smart cities lead to appreciation of property value in the city and nearby areas?
Areas with better infrastructure will fetch better real estate value due to higher demand and hence, in the formation of smart cities, land and property values will increase.
5. Should I be worried about rise in property value due to speculation?
If the smart city guidelines are implemented strictly, it will primarily aid end-users/ buyers and not speculative investors. Each city will have its own Housing Development Corporation and other authorities that will drive the governance of smart city. These institutions will need to play a key role in avoiding speculation.
This is an excerpt from the original article titled “Fundamental Queries on Smart Cities Mission answered” written by Anuj Puri. The original article appeared in The Hindu – Property Plus supplement on 15th August 2015
According to Value Market Research, the latest technology trends and global market opportunity analysis in the Smart Cities Market industry growing with a high CAGR in the upcoming year. Our report has categorized the market based on technology, service, development, vertical and region.