Goans complain about the astronomical rate of land in the state and mainly blame �outsiders� for this. However a fact not easily noticeable or nobody pays attention to though of much significance is the existence of your friendly, neighbourhood broker or �poi-pao network�.
He can be your baker or the motorcycle pilot or the cabbie, the waiter, or a white collared professional.
As these people don�t have a name or reputation to protect, and nothing to lose, they don�t mind adding Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh property.
�The people have not realised the magnitude of their influence,� said Mr Alan Viegas, one of the top real estate consultants in the state, and added: �Take the example of land prices in villages like Assagao or Aldona. The genuine price for land was between Rs 500 to Rs 2,000 over the last five years before 2007. When the boom started, agents who did not know how many zeroes existed in a crore, began to quote Dona Paula rates in these areas.�
�When the Dilliwalla finds ten brokers quoting the same figure, he deduces it to be the prevailing market rate, even though it may be six times higher than last year�s price. Landlords of course, are only happy to accept a higher price. Such brokers� influence tends to be lesser in built-up property like flats or villas, only because experienced and reputed builders do not allow their prices to be dictated by rogue brokers, unlike onetime land sellers. That is precisely why built-up property rose only between 40 per cent to 100 per cent but land prices shot up by 400 per cent,� he argued.
He opined that for people who come from outside the state and do not know anybody, but fall in love with the place, as well as for the landlord who gets a price for his land or his ancestral house that he had never dreamt of, the deal is good.
But what it does is it has contributed to the skyrocketing prices � a four-fold increase in the price of land in the past one and a half years, if industry insiders are to be believed.
Some examples are: a professional made one crore bonanza when some hot shot political family scion decided to pick up some land in the state, or another where a recent deal for a three crore project and a health care professional makes Rs 50 lakh and the list goes on and on.
Insiders say that these so-called poi bread agents who are found everywhere and besides roadside chai shops is one of the main reasons, though not openly discussed, for this abnormal price rise.
In contrast a good brokerage firm renders a service for a fee to their customers. But the in influence of these brokers in the unorganised sector cannot be underestimated because of their sheer numbers. According to figures there are hardly 25 registered, tax paying property agencies in the whole of Goa, but for every legitimate agency, there are at least 500 agents in the market.