BENGALURU: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has decided to go in for an open auction for sale of its 7,800 corner sites due to the poor response it was getting through its online auction. It is contemplating a similar route for renting out its commercial establishments. The e-auction procedure has been in place for the last decade. BDA Secretary Basavaraju told Express, “We have written to the State government seeking permission to go back to the open auction process. Ever since demonetisation took place, we have seen a slump in sale of corner sites, which were always in demand earlier.”
The open auction is being contemplated in order to reach out to a larger number and ensure they are sold, he said. While regular BDA sites are sold through an open lottery method, corner sites have always been sold through auction only due to the tremendous response it generates from buyers. These sites are located at Kengeri, Banashankari, Gnana Bharati, Viswabharathi, Anjanapura, HBR Layout and OMBR Layout. Due to the excellent ventilation and easy access to roads that these sites possess, they are priced 20% higher than the regular BDA sites, said an official In the e-auction, 40 to 50 corner sites are advertised every fortnight through the website. It is transparent and bidders can keep logging in and changing their quote depending on other bidders. Bidders need to keep on logging in to get updated. “But this needs to be done for a fortnight,” he said.
“At least 35 sites used to get sold each fortnight and that number has gone down now to single digit sites for the last ten months,” said another top official. “In the open auction, the result about who has got a site is known within hours of the transaction,” he said. Quite a number of commercial shops of BDA have not found tenants. “HSR Layout and HBR Layout BDA complexes have many shops still unoccupied,” said an official. However, no one at BDA could give a precise figure on the exact number of vacant shops. Basavaraju said, “There may be a huge number who are not tech-savvy and hence are not bidding online. So, we are now looking at the traditional auction.”