Plots e-auction yields Rs 1,495 crore windfall for DDA

Consumer-friendly policies for acquiring plots of various categories in the national Capital have resulted in a whopping profit for the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). It earned Rs 1,494.7 crores against the reserve price of Rs 629.19 crores through e-auction.

Giving details on Wednesday, DDA said 81 plots were up for auction. Thanks to far-reaching reforms initiated by Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena, the 20th round of e-Auction of plots in different categories like Residential, Group Housing, Commercial, Industrial and Institutional were conducted by DDA between 21.11.2025 and 27.11.2025.

For 41 plots under the Industrial Land Category, DDA received H1 bids amounting to a total of Rs 272.39 crores as against the reserve price of Rs 53.08 crores, which was 413.10 per cent above the reserve price. Similarly, for 10 plots of Institutional Land, with the reserve price was Rs 224.80 Crores, DDA received the highest bids amounting to a total of Rs 307.71 crores.

For 17 plots of residential land, the reserve price was Rs 52.05 crore, against which a sum of Rs 166.06 Crore was received as the highest bids, 219 per cent above the reserve price. For 10 plots in the Commercial category, having a reserve price of a total of Rs 44.32 crore, DDA received H1 bid amounting to Rs 106.02 Crore, 139 per cent above the reserve price.

Group Housing Plots, put for e-Auction, witnessed extremely high competition. For 02 plots of Group Housing located in Sector 27, Dwarka, the reserve price was Rs 254.94 crore, for which the highest bids amounting to a total of Rs 642.49 crore were received.

This robust rise in the highest bids in various categories has been a direct result of pragmatic decisions taken by the LG and the Authority, based on extensive ground survey, stakeholder consultation and infrastructure augmentation undertaken by the DDA.

In the commercial category, where plots could not be sold despite being put up for auction on several occasions, the overwhelming response this time is a result of the decision to reduce the reserve price multiplication factor from the earlier factor of 2 to 1.5. (Earlier, the reserve price used to be two times the circle rate, which was brought down to 1.5 times).  The LG had set up a task force in December, 2024 to see the reasons behind the Commercial plots not being sold and suggest measures to address this.

The earlier practice resulted in an extremely high entry barrier, deterring participation of bidders.  The decision of lowering the reserve price multiplication factor resulted in much wider participation, which led to inter-category competition in the e-Auction.  As a result of this, bids exceeded even the reserve price at the earlier factor of 2.  Wider participation led to market forces discovering the correct market price.

In the Institutional Category, the reserve price multiplication factor was brought down from the earlier 0.75 to 0.6.