Realty glitters in the diamond city. Real estate sector has witnessed a 100 per cent growth in the past two years, aided by a number of factors like vertical development, business opportunities and influx of people from other places.

Om Ahuja, CEO-residential services, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) India, said, “In cities like Surat, the growth is directly related to increased income of people. High income has also spawned more nuclear families.”

Chairman CREDAI, Surat, Tarun Rawal said, “On-going development of mass transport infrastructure and planned town planning schemes in the city has given confidence to people to go to faraway places to live. Hence, small sector projects – 1,500 sq ft houses – have gained a foothold in the city.”

Surat was the only city where people used to buy and sell properties without documents, but now awareness is growing. “Now small units have started to come up in huge numbers,” said Harshil Daliwala of SNS Builders.

The city is estimated to be spread over in an area of 326 sq km. It could further expand by another 200 sq km. “There is a plan to convert Surat-Navsari into twin cities which will together have a population of 1.15 crore people,” Surat Municipal Corporation’s director of planning Jivan Patel said.