Hyderabad Is No Longer Chasing Real Estate Demand but Shaping It
Hyderabad is entering a new phase of urban growth, driven by expanding infrastructure, emerging employment hubs and development beyond its traditional corridors. As connectivity reshapes the city’s geography, opportunities are moving towards its outer edges, creating a more distributed and connected urban landscape. Vijay Kumar Yerram, Chairman and Managing Director, Vasavi Group, shares his perspective on Hyderabad’s evolving growth story, changing residential demand and the role of developers in shaping the city’s next chapter.
The Hyderabad growth story of the past 20 years was spent in one direction. The city’s success was measured almost entirely along its western stretch. This story is now changing. The next expansion phase is being written along its outer edges, and it is infrastructure rather than sentiment that is perfecting the map.
Connecting the Dots
The Outer Ring Road turned Hyderabad into a radial market and gave the city a decade of orderly growth. The Regional Ring Road, planned as a far wider loop of roughly 340 kilometres will attain something more fundamental. It will pull towns that were once considered distant into the metropolitan fold and open up service land at a scale this city has not worked with before. Furthermore, the proposed Future City in the south, the new radial road linking it to the airport belt, the artificial intelligence and life sciences clusters are also being planned there. The next stage of metro expansion, and the outline that emerges is of a genuinely polycentric city rather than one corridor with suburbs attached to it.
This shift changes the planning question for every developer – what is the location worth today? The real question is an overview of the location’s connectivity in five and 10 years from now, and whether the surrounding social infrastructure in terms of schools, hospitals, retail and public transit will be built in time to support the transition of families living there. At Vasavi Group, we have consistently backed pockets ahead of their curve, and our rule has been simple. Enter early, but build only when the connectivity story is credible rather than announced.
The Industry Impact
The second force reshaping the Hyderabad market is growth of global capability centres (GCC). Hyderabad has just recorded its strongest ever first half of office leasing, and according to recent industry data, GCCs accounted for close to half of that absorption. This is not a hiring cycle that will reverse in a quarter. Multinationals are moving engineering, research, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and finance functions into the city, and they are long-tenure, high-value roles.
What this means for housing is quite specific. Professionals joining these centres are not looking only for well-priced apartments. They want effective and smooth connectivity, quality open space, reliable amenities and a community that functions properly from day one. This is why demand has broadened outward from the traditional western belt into Kukatpally, Kompally, Narsingi, Uppal and the southern stretch towards the airport. The next focus is why walk-to-work and drive-to-work locations now command a clear premium. New urban clusters are forming around employment nodes rather than around the old city centre, and residential planning has to follow that logic too.
Building with a Cause
Vasavi Group has been building in this city since 1994, and over three decades we have completed 30 residential and 17 commercial projects catering to around 25,000 people. What matters more than the count is the spread. Our portfolio runs from Kompally and Bachupally in the north to L.B. Nagar in the south, from Uppal in the east across to Hitec City, Hafeezpet and Narsingi in the west. Our offerings span affordable homes, premium high-rises, villas and commercial office spaces. Vasavi Sarovar remains our flagship brand with a lake-facing community built on close to 22 acres in the Kukatpally and Hitec City belt. Ananda Nilayam at L.B. Nagar was named the most iconic project of 2023, while Atlantis at Narsingi rises to 45 floors near the Financial District.
Over the next few years our focus is on measured expansion rather than infrastructure corridors, with a mix of premium high-rises and villa communities, and on continuing our lake conservation work, which is an obligation rather than an initiative.
A developer’s legacy is not in the towers handed down to the residents but building the neighbourhoods that outlive them.
The city has earned this moment. The work now is to build Hyderabad and help the city take shape beyond the current on-going development.
