Gurgaon: In a first for the city, the department of town and country planning (DTCP) has allotted guesthouse permissions in DLF-3 through a competitive auction process.With bids touching an unprecedented Rs 86,500 per square metre in the Sector 24 guesthouse auction, urban planners and property consultants say the figure is comparable to premium commercial land valuations in parts of the city.Officials said 12 plot owners applied for permission to convert residential properties into guesthouses in DLF-3. Of these, 10 applicants qualified after scrutiny and participated in the bidding process. The highest bid was followed by Rs 86,000 and Rs 85,000 per sq metre. Applicants were also required to deposit earnest money of Rs 1 lakh before participating in the auction.The auction was conducted on Friday under the supervision of a three-member committee, headed by a senior town planner. The team included senior town planner Renuka Singh and assistant town planner Rajat Chauhan. “Since applications exceeded the permissible limit — under Haryana’s guesthouse policy — in Sector 24, permissions for guesthouses are being granted through an auction process. The entire exercise was conducted transparently as per departmental rules,” senior town planner of DTCP Renuka Singh said.At Rs 86,500 per sq metre, the payable amount for approximately 836 sq metres (equivalent to nearly 1,000 sq yards) works out to over Rs 7.23 crore, excluding construction costs, licensing expenses, interiors, parking infrastructure and operational compliances. Consultants said the total project investment for a premium guesthouse on such a plot in DLF 3 could easily cross Rs 20 crore depending on land cost and fit-outs.DLF-3, located close to Cyber City and Rapid Metro corridors, has increasingly witnessed conversion pressure from paying guest units, guesthouses and commercial establishments over the past decade. Real estate experts said the aggressive bidding reflects the strong hospitality demand around Cyber City, Udyog Vihar and NH8, where business travel continues to fuel high occupancy levels for boutique guesthouses and serviced accommodations.Under the current policy notified by DTCP on April 8, 2021, guesthouses can be permitted only up to a cumulative limit of 1.2 acres — nearly 5,058 sq metres — in any residential sector. In DLF-3 Sector 24, the total area sought by applicants crossed 5,500 sq metres, exceeding the permissible threshold. Because each eligible plot must measure between 500 and 1,500 square yards, the available quota in Sector 24 effectively translated into space for only around two large guesthouses.The current framework marks a significant shift from Haryana’s earlier guesthouse policy. Under the older rules, only two guesthouses were permitted in an entire residential sector and the minimum plot size required was 1,000 square yards. In July 2019, Haryana govt relaxed these norms substantially to encourage hospitality infrastructure in urban areas such as Gurgaon.The revised 2019 policy reduced the minimum plot size requirement from 1,000 sq yards to 500 sq yards and removed the fixed numerical cap of “two guesthouses per sector”. Instead, the govt introduced an area-based regulation mechanism. The later 2021 policy further streamlined the framework and formally capped the total guesthouse area in a residential sector at 1.2 acres.Urban planners say the shift from a fixed-number cap to an area-based cap was aimed at giving flexibility to sectors with different plot sizes while simultaneously controlling over-commercialisation of residential colonies.According to DTCP policy documents, a residential plot must fulfil several conditions before it can be converted into a guesthouse. “Minimum plot size must be 500 square yards, maximum permissible plot size is 1,500 square yards, the property must be located on a 24-metre-wide road or a main road and a service road must be available. Clubbing of two plots is allowed in certain cases, guesthouses are allowed only within the overall 1.2-acre sector cap and the permissions are granted subject to parking, fire safety and building norms prescribed by DTCP and local authorities,” an official said.The department has also been issuing public notices inviting applications sector-wise wherever net planned area remains available under the 1.2-acre ceiling.Property consultants said the auction rate of Rs 86,500 per sq metre translates to roughly Rs 72,000 per sq yard, placing it among the highest conversion-linked charges seen in a residential licensing framework in Gurgaon. For comparison, current commercial property transactions in several established Gurgaon markets range between Rs 15,000 and Rs 45,000 per sq ft depending on location and lease potential, while collector rates for premium commercial areas in Gurgaon go significantly higher.
