Sacred Land Rush

IN DECEMBER, HOSPITALITY tech app OYO witnessed a 350 per cent increase in searches for Ayodhya on its plat­form, almost a month in advance of the consecration of the Ram temple there. Again, on New Year’s Eve, that temple town of Uttar Pradesh alone cranked up a 70 per cent surge among OYO app users, leaving behind popular domestic leisure havens such as Goa (50 per cent) and Nainital (60 per cent). Ayodhya is not alone. Religious tourism is at an all-time high with the government decongesting holy cities across the country and pumping in the necessary infrastructure to facilitate access and growth. Puri in Odisha, for instance, secured the top spot on the OYO app as the most booked pilgrimage destination in 2023, followed by Amritsar, Varanasi, Tirupati and Haridwar-Ri­shikesh. However, “Ayodhya has experienced a staggering 1,219 per cent increase in bookings over the past year alone,” says Anuj Tejpal, chief merchant officer, OYO. “Even lesser-known gems like Deoghar, Govardhan, and Palani have seen significant growth in visitors, at 11 per cent, 36 per cent, and 14 per cent, respectively. Spiritual tourism is no longer a niche; it’s poised to become the primary driver of growth in our industry over the next five years.”

While OYO is on course to launch 400 new properties across pilgrimage destinations such as Ayodhya, Puri, Tirupati, Shirdi, Varanasi, etc, it has already opened 51 homestays and 14 hotels in Ayodhya, a city that most reflects the real estate boom in spiritual terms.

Over the next decade, Ayodhya is set to witness a rejuvena­tion with an investment of ₹85,000 crore. A key component of the Ayodhya Master Plan 2031 is to accommodate 3 lakh visitors daily, making the city a major tourism hub. Besides, effort is on for efficient waste management and conversion to a solar city. With big brands already dotting the Ayodhya skyline, the city is poised to give a major boost to the state’s economy.

Varanasi-based hotelier Nityanand Tiwari realised Ayodhya’s potential two-and-a-half years ago and bought 10 biswas (1 biswa is 1,350 square feet) of land a few metres away from the Ram temple for ₹1.5 crore. It has already given him a tenfold return. “While it will take me a couple of years to construct a hotel, what I bought for ₹1.5 crore two-and-a-half years ago is now worth ₹15 crore. I invested in Ayodhya as I was sure it would become a magnet for tourism,” he says.

Property prices in Ayodhya started spiralling after the Supreme Court verdict gave the nod to construct the Ram temple. “Before 2019, you could purchase 1.5 hectares of land here for ₹5-10 lakh depending on the distance from the main temple and connectivity. In 2020, that doubled. Today, it is tenfold. Prices are constantly going up,” claims Alankar Gupta, partner at Ayodhya Dham Properties, a RERA-registered broker in Ayodhya.

Since the government has acquired massive land banks near the Ram temple, the area is getting out of bounds. But land is avail­able at a distance of 5-6 kilometres from the temple in the range of ₹3,000-10,000/sqft. Beyond 10km from the temple, it is still, however, available at ₹1,000/sqft, but the land parcels here are massive, says Gupta. Most of the development works in Ayodhya, however, are centred around the temple and the highway.

With Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan recently acquiring a land parcel in a 7-star mixed-use development of The House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL) to build a house near the Ram temple in Ayodhya, such marquee demand is set to further fuel buyer interest. The veteran actor has bought the land parcel in ‘The Sarayu’, a project spread over 51 acres, including residential plots, villas, and even high-rise luxury apartments in the holy city, the developer said in a release.

Hotel chains such as Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), Marriott International, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts have already signed deals in Ayodhya. The city is also teeming with dharamshalas and guesthouses, and new F&B retail brands like Domino’s, Bikanervala and Haldiram’s have sprouted. “Earlier, the average room rate [ARR] in hotels was be­tween ₹2,000-3,000/night. Today, it has climbed to ₹ 20,000/night,” says Gupta.

In rental values, too, Ayodhya is seeing a surge. Localities like Saket Puri and Deokali Bypass command high rentals nowadays. “In these areas, five years ago, a 2BHK [apartment] was available on rent for anywhere between ₹2,000-3,000/month. Today, a 1BHK [apartment] here is going for ₹15,000/month.”

Though rentals are on fire, people have started working on the homestay model since there is a shortage of hotels. “The government has permitted houses to make homestays, and 700 such houses have been identified. Each homestay will charge ₹1,500/night and this is further jacking up rentals across the city,” points out Gupta, who has taken 15 acres of land just 4km away from the shrine, and plans to sell 150 square yards each to those interested to run homestays. “These will be serviced apartments and I will be selling them for ₹1 lakh/square yard.”

ABOUT 220-ODD KILOMETRES to the southeast, the city of Varanasi is seeing burgeoning footfalls too. The ancient city, home to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, spread over 5 lakh square feet, has today eased the movement of pilgrims and residents between the ghats and the temple and is a major draw. Over 13 crore devotees have visited the temple since its inauguration in 2021, as against 69 lakh in 2019. Yet, Varanasi’s growth trajectory does not mirror that of Ayodhya.

Though the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor has made temples accessible, not much has been done to create social infrastructure in the city. “There is a dearth of hotels and infrastructure to allow seamless integration with your lifestyle, and it is a very congested city as well,” explains Ravi Shankar Singh, managing director of Residential Transaction Services, Colliers India.

Precisely due to the shortage of land to provide social infra­structure, land values in Varanasi are going north. The core of Varanasi doesn’t extend beyond eight kilometres. But most of the development now is taking place nearly 25km from the core, around the airport area.

To make the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor a reality, many houses along the ghats had to be razed. The owners of such houses have received compensation and they moved out to the periphery of the city, again near the airport or the Varanasi-Allahabad highway. People in the remaining houses along the ghats are also migrating as the ghats are congested and there is no parking available. “Many have converted old buildings into rooms overlooking the river and are charging as much as ₹10,000-20,000 per night as homestays,” says Rajesh Sharma, managing director of the Varanasi-based construction and real estate firm RN Multiservices Pvt Ltd.

For a homebuyer, the city area commands ₹40,000/sqft, and the going circle rate in the area sits at ₹15,000-20,000/sqft, depending on the location. Prices here have been going up since 2015. Also, the Ring Road area, again about 25km from the city centre, has seen a lot of interest from developers like the Didwania Group, RC Jain, Rudra Real Estate, etc. Different residential formats have sprung up in the zone, from 2-3-4 BHK to studio apartments. However, demand remains high for both 2 and 3BHK apartments.

In terms of rentals, within the inner city, there are some small flats that local builders have developed. Herein, “a 2BHK fully furnished apartment is going for ₹20,000-25,000/month whereas an unfur­nished 2BHK flat would fetch ₹12,000-15,000/month,” says Sharma.

Outside the inner city, say “in the Ring Road neighbourhood, a 2BHK apartment with roughly 800-1,000sqft area is going for
₹8,000-10,000/month,” points out Sharma.

Maybe high rentals within the city have prompted Srishti Yadav, 25, a boutique owner, to buy her own flat recently. “I’ve recently bought a 2BHK apartment of about 1,000 sqft at Rudransh Purushottam housing society in Kakarmata, a stone’s throw from the Varanasi Railway Station, for ₹45 lakh. I will be moving in shortly. Though I belong to Azamgarh, I’ve been stay­ing in Varanasi for four years now, and felt the need to move to a flat, since rentals have soared to ₹15,000/month and maintenance is separate,” she elaborates.

Again, in Uttar Pradesh, some 700 kilometres to the northwest of Varanasi, not far from Delhi NCR, lies the abode of Lord Krish­na, Vrindavan. According to the UP Tourism Board, in 2019 alone, 16 million tourists visited Vrindavan, including 57,000 internation­al tourists. Apart from the neighbouring religious city of Mathura, pilgrims also make a beeline for other holy towns in the region such as Barsana and Govardhan. This year, with Jewar International Airport slated to commence operations, the tourism boom in the region is palpable since it is just 62km from Vrindavan.

Also, along the lines of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi, the UP government has announced the ₹248 crore Banke Bihari Corridor here, again spread over 5 lakh square feet. Though it will be ready by 2026, it will not merely give a facelift to the main Banke Bihari temple and its precincts but also decon­gest lanes, retail areas and passages to the temple. Furthermore, road widening, construction of retail complexes and hospital­ity projects are underway in the region, enhancing the overall infrastructure and social facilities. “The next growth you will see will be Mathura-Vrindavan as it will be the next focus area with infrastructure coming up,” points out Anuj Puri, chairman of ANAROCK Property Consultants.

Indeed, many developers have evinced interest in Vrindavan. In 2010, plots that were on offer here at ₹1,600/sqft are worth ₹8,000- 10,000/sqft today, says Ashutosh Garg, proprietor of the Vrinda­van-based Sunbeam Real Estate. When it comes to buying flats, homebuyers in Vrindavan are on the lookout for well-planned, low-density projects, he says, adding that the rental market here has not performed much and the city remains an end-user market.

One such end-user is 65-year-old Sanjay Gupta, a consultant with the Central government who along with his wife has been a Krishna devotee for the past several decades. “For years, we’ve been visiting Mathura-Vrindavan, almost paying 12-15 visits a year, and were always in search of good places to live there,” says Gupta from his family home in Delhi. So, in 2010, he invested in a small plot in Vrindavan (about 3km from the main Banke Bihari temple) for ₹6 lakh. Today, it is valued at ₹35 lakh. Again, last year, he bought a 133 square yard land in Vrindavan for ₹16 lakh. The property is 6km from the main temple and he is sure to get good returns in case he decides to sell the plot. He’s now buying an apartment too. “In the next few day, I will purchase a 2BHK flat at Omaxe Eternity [housing project], which is about 3km from the temple,” he says, clamming up about the price or dimensions. What keeps him riveted to the city apart from the obvious Krishna consciousness? “I live in Delhi and chose Vrindavan over other places because I can drive down easily. Down the line, I intend to live there because it gives me peace of mind.”

Some 350-odd kilometres to the north of Vrindavan, in the state of Uttarakhand, Rishikesh offers several spiritual avenues, including yoga, for which it is internationally acclaimed. The city is also known as ‘the yoga capital of the world’. The state govern­ment is now developing the Haridwar-Rishikesh Ganga Corridor on the lines of Ayodhya and real estate has touched new heights, particularly after Covid-19.

While several organised hotels have cropped up along the Ganges such as Taj, Westin, Marriott and Lemon Tree, prices of local hotels have shot up near the river bank too. In 2021-22, Rishikesh com­manded the highest average room rate (ARR) of ₹10,042/night, even higher than the lake city of Udaipur.

“Nowadays, it is impossible to find a place near the river bank, say, in the Laxman Jhula area. If we look at the Tapo­van area, the price on the main highway sits at ₹2.5 lakh/sqft. The price of a 3BHK apartment near Ram Jhula is ₹3 crore,” explains Aakash Manik, promoter of the Rishikesh-based Saizee Properties.

Unlike other cities of Uttar Pradesh, being at the foothills of the Himalayas, Rishikesh’s verdant surrounds add to its appeal. Manik points out two kinds of homebuyers picking up property in the temple town—those with a spiritual bent of mind, and doctors and medical students. “An AIIMS has come up in Rishikesh and the medical fraternity is hunting for apartments on rent, as well as purchase,” observes Manik, adding that apartments that used to be rented out for ₹8,000-10,000/month until five years ago are now going for ₹20,000/month.

Manik has helped the San Francisco-based interior designer and yoga practitioner Aura Dave, 29, to buy a 2BHK apartment offering a view of the Ganges at the ‘Aloha’ project for ₹3 crore. “I’ve been practising yoga and visiting Rishikesh for the last five years. I fell in love with a community based on consciousness around Rishikesh with the city’s people, yoga and rich music scene. I am also a huge fan of the natural part of the city—I like cold plunges and sitting around the river,” says Dave, who lives in California for more than half of the year. But since it is a serviced apartment she has bought, Dave has been able to monetise her asset. “It is booked for most nights when I’m not using it, and guarantees me ₹30,000/night.”

While these are some of the major religious destinations where large-scale infrastructure spends are guaranteeing returns, a time-tested temple town like Tirupati down south is witness­ing growth for other reasons. It has evolved as a major medical education hub today and apartment prices have almost doubled over the last five years. “While 2/3/4 BHK options vary from ₹70 lakh to ₹1.5 crore, prices are northbound owing to better road infrastructure and connectivity,” says a local broker.

Shirdi to the west, on the other hand, has seen a rather flat trajectory. Ask Babasaheb Pati, promoter of Pagire Real Estate Agency in Shirdi, and he’ll tell you that property prices here have not gone up since the Shirdi Trust constructed 500-1,000 rooms 5-6 years ago with a rental of just ₹250 a night. “This has impacted not just hospitality, but real estate too. The demand for real estate is primarily local demand where a 2BHK [800 sq ft] is available for ₹25-30 lakh. And ever since the airport has come up, people land here in the morning and leave by the evening flight. As a result, the hospitality sector is suffering.”

Going by OYO’s experience, however, a blip in footfalls could be momentary. The prime minister, after all, promised multiple devel­opment projects last October amounting to ₹7,500 crore in sectors such as health, roads, rail, and oil and gas in and around the Shirdi region. Also, the Darshan Queue complex, inaugurated by Modi, offers a modern waiting space with various amenities.

Indian religious destinations already score over their global peers. A recent report by Jefferies — the US-based financial services company—pointsoutthatAyodhya’smakeovercanattractover50 million tourists to the city each year. It says that the Golden Temple in Amritsar gets an estimated 30-35 million footfalls a year, while the Tirupati temple sees 25-30 million visits. Globally, however, Vatican City gets around 9 million tourists each year and Mecca in Saudi Arabia receives 20 million pilgrims.

ANationalSampleSurveyOfficereportin2017estimatedIndia’s religious tourism economy to be worth ₹3.02lakhcrore, orabout2.32 per cent of India’s GDP then. The number may even be more since a large unorganised market supports religious tourism. With the march of infrastructure, pilgrimage will grow and real estate across India’s temple towns is bound to follow.

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