The new SEZ policies will have a greater impact on real estate and IT sector. Experts opine that these new SEZ policies are sure to boost commercial realty.

HYDERABAD: Recently the government has initiated some new SEZ policies. The government, by taking away the minimum land requirement of 10 hectares of land for developing IT and ITES SEZ, has taken a landmark decision which will boost both realty and IT sectors. The new SEZ policies will be enforced in top seven cities with immediate effect.

New SEZ policies will let SEZ developers to come up with smaller IT parks.

Under the new SEZ reforms, the minimum built up area is 100,000 square meters. This makes it easy for the SEZ developers. While this is in the major cities, Tier I cities, the minimum built up area in the small cities or tier II cities will be a half of it.

The minimum built up area in tier II cities is 50,000 sq. m. The remaining smaller cities it is 25,000 sq. m.

Many IT companies will be able to launch its own SEZ. This is one of the most important aspects of this new SEZ reforms. Up to now only big IT companies could launch their own SEZs. This was mainly because the minimum land required for SEZ by IT firms was 25 acres.

With the new policy, the developers will be able to acquire small land parcels and turn them to SEZs. It means that the developers can develop SEZ if they own land parcels as small as 7 acres. Moreover the FSI rates are higher for IT parks. FSI for IT Parks in Chennai and Bangalore is 3.25 and 3.75 respectively.

New SEZ policies expected to boost real estate and IT.

Further the new SEZ reforms will make more mixed use developments. Once the SEZ developers complete the minimum built up area of 100,000 square meters, they will be allowed to convert the remaining land parcels to mixed use projects.

Smaller cities also will benefit from this new policy. There will be more mixed projects across the country which will provide the people a chance to live where they work.