Chandigarh Is Auctioning Freehold Plots This Month — And It's the Best Argument Yet for Buying in Mohali ## चंडीगढ़ इस महीने फ्रीहोल्ड प्लॉट्स की नीलामी कर रहा है — और यह मोहाली में खरीदारी के लिए अब तक का सबसे बड़ा तर्क है ## ਸਿਰਲੇਖ (ਸੰਦਰਭ ਲਈ): ਚੰਡੀਗੜ੍ਹ ਇਸ ਮਹੀਨੇ ਫ੍ਰੀਹੋਲਡ ਪਲਾਟ ਨਿਲਾਮ ਕਰ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ — ਅਤੇ ਇਹ ਮੋਹਾਲੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਖਰੀਦਣ ਦੀ ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਵਧੀਆ ਦਲੀਲ ਹੈ ਇਸ ਨੂੰ ਪੂਰੀ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ ਕਰੋ: ਚੰਡੀਗੜ੍ਹ ਇਸ ਮਹੀਨੇ ਫ੍ਰੀਹੋਲਡ ਪਲਾਟ ਨਿਲਾਮ ਕਰ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ — ਅਤੇ ਇਹ ਮੋਹਾਲੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਖਰੀਦਣ ਦੀ ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਵਧੀਆ ਦਲੀਲ ਹੈ

What Chandigarh Is Putting on the Block

The Chandigarh Administration has identified nearly 1,000 vacant government-owned properties for phased e-auction through FY2026-27, with monthly cycles planned across the year. Residential plots will be offered freehold, concentrated in the city's southern sectors, in sizes from 4 marlas to over 2 kanals. Commercial and industrial sites are largely leasehold.

It is a real opportunity. Freehold land inside Chandigarh's sector grid is one of the rarest commodities in the Tricity, and the government auction is essentially the only way it enters the market at all. If you have wanted a plot inside the grid for years, this is the window.

The numbers, though, are what make this simultaneously the strongest argument for looking at Mohali.

What You Actually Pay in a Chandigarh Auction

The premiums are steep. In a recent round, eight residential plots fetched ₹37.5 crore against a reserve of ₹18 crore, a premium of 108 percent, and the Estate Office took in roughly ₹150 crore from property auctions over the previous financial year.

Reserve prices have since moved up. Collector rates were revised on March 25, 2026 and took effect from April 1, raising base values across the city by roughly 8 to 22 percent, and the upcoming auctions are pegged to these revised benchmarks.

So the arithmetic runs like this. The reserve is set on the revised collector rate. The winning bid, on 2024-25 precedent, tends to land at roughly double the reserve. Then add Chandigarh's 6 percent stamp duty plus 1 percent registration. The all-in cost of a government freehold plot in a premium Chandigarh sector is simply not in the same conversation as buying in Mohali. It is a different asset class, priced accordingly.

What That Money Buys in Mohali

Mohali's established sectors, including 66, 79, 82, 91 and the Airport Road belt, run at roughly ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh per square yard. There is no auction premium stacked on top, and no competitive bidding process where weeks of documentation can still end with you losing the plot.

A word on transaction cost, since it cuts both ways. Chandigarh charges a flat 6 percent stamp duty for every buyer. Punjab charges 7 percent for men, 5 percent for women and 6 percent for joint buyers, with 1 percent registration in both. So Mohali is not automatically cheaper on stamp duty. It is higher for a male buyer, lower for a female buyer, and level for joint ownership. The real saving in Mohali is on land cost and the absence of an auction premium, not on duty.

For the Aerotropolis belt, Pocket A residential LOIs are trading at ₹50,000 to ₹57,000 per square yard. A 150 sqyd LOI in Pocket A works out to roughly ₹75 to ₹85 lakh. That same budget in a Chandigarh auction, after premium and registration, buys less land in a sector where the infrastructure already exists but the upside is fully priced in.

What Chandigarh Still Has

This is not a Chandigarh-is-bad argument. It is a pricing argument.

Chandigarh has infrastructure depth, governance quality, Le Corbusier's planning legacy, established amenities and a brand that commands a premium across every property category. Those things are real, and they justify a premium over Mohali for comparable use.

What they do not justify is a 100-plus percent auction premium stacked on collector rates that are themselves well above where they sat 12 months ago. That premium reflects scarcity, not proportional value. Local property experts have noted the auction structure may exclude middle and lower-income families, which is another way of saying the market has moved so far that only a narrow buyer profile can participate at all.

The Supply Argument

Chandigarh is bounded. It cannot grow. Every additional buyer who wants in competes for the same fixed pool of land, which is why auction premiums keep compounding. Mohali, by contrast, is actively creating supply. GMADA has Eco City 3 heading toward launch, Eco City 4 just notified, and the Aerotropolis Extension at Banur under acquisition, alongside an active pipeline of new sector development. Scarcity is not built into the Mohali market the way it is in Chandigarh.

That pipeline is also what makes the Aerotropolis LOI worth a look at current prices. You are buying a government-issued, GMADA-backed tradeable instrument in a corridor with documented infrastructure investment and a 5 to 10-year development horizon, rather than competing at auction for a fixed plot that everyone wants at once.

The Chandigarh auction, for all its appeal, quantifies the premium the market attaches to the established city. Mohali offers the corridor story at a different entry point. The auction data is what makes that gap legible.

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Sources
- eAuctions India — Chandigarh Estate Office FY2026-27 auction plan (~1,000 properties, ~₹1,000 cr target), April–May 2026
- The Tribune — Estate Office record auction: 8 residential plots ₹37.5 cr against ₹18 cr reserve (108% premium)
- garahpravesh / eAuctions India — collector rates revised 25 March 2026, effective 1 April, +8% to 22%
- Chandigarh stamp duty 6% flat + 1% registration; Punjab 7% male / 5% female / 6% joint + 1% registration
- Mohali Aerotropolis platform data — current LOI and sector pricing, June 2026