How Would APJ Abdul Kalam's Vision 2020 Help Home Buyers?

Cities across the world create master plans to guide sustainable, planned development of cities. But, the preparation of master plan is often too costly an exercise to formulate policy and estimate the infrastructural requirements of a city. Master plans often leave much to be desired because they do not use technology to fulfill their requirements. A decade ago, this would have been understandable, if not excusable, because the technology that was required to handle the needs of urban local authorities did not exist. But, Google Earth removed such constraints.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the former Indian President who passed away yesterday, had once warned that the geographic details provided by Google Earth's satellite imaging program threaten India's security. Abdul Kalam observed that in certain countries, the laws regarding spatial observations over their territory and UN recommendations about the display of spatial observation are inadequate. Kalam was perceptive enough to see that Google Earth could also share vital information about terrorists, their origins and operations.

• Now, this fits in well with Abdul Kalam's India vision 2020 that information and communication technology should be used to improve transparency in administration. But, this is not all. There are many ways in which spatial data can be used to formulate policies that makes homes more affordable for economically weaker sections of the society.
• Real estate portals like PropTiger.com are already combining master plans and satellite/aerial imagery on Google to inform home buyers. PropTiger.com's feature, City Master Plan, informs consumers of the areas in a city where major infrastructural projects are likely to emerge. This is the most vital piece of information real estate investors and home buyers need before buying apartments in India. If leading players in the digital economy use technology to tackle information asymmetry in residential property markets, why is it difficult for municipal corporations to do so?
• Google Earth can provide data on real estate in India, including how much land a city occupies. Google Earth will also allow urban local authorities systematically manage accounts of the land being used in a city. Such data would help urban local authorities to device land use policies and manage the city's finances.
• Using spatial data, municipal corporations can assign market values to land in various parts of the city. Using census data and an overview of the transportation network in cities, urban planners can see where land is underutilized in a city.
• Using such data, local authorities can also find information on the formally and informally developed areas in a city. More importantly, land use policy and zoning regulations in cities often depend on policy vision of administrations, and not on the spatial requirements of a city. How can Google Earth and other forms of technology can help urban planners overcome this? For instance, by juxtaposing formal and informal settlements in adjacent locations in a city, can compare the floor space and land occupied per dwelling. Often, in large Indian cities, the floor space occupied by dwelling units in formal settlements is many times higher than the land occupied by dwelling units. People who live in informal settlements too engage in market transactions to buy land and construct homes. But, their homes find it difficult to compete with formal settlements in affordability because land costs more than floor space in large Indian cities. People who live in informal settlements, unfortunately, lack the initial capital that is required to build greater floor space. Technology can help us quantify such useful information about real estate in Indian cities.
• There are also regulations that restrict consumption of floor space. Using Google earth, administrators can find out the extent to which floor area ratio distorts the residential and commercial property markets in different areas in a city. For instance, if the floor area ratio (FAR) is 1, this still would not distort residential property markets if most homes have an FAR less than 0.5. An FAR of 1.33 in a city where most residential and commercial structures prefer a much larger FAR would be a disaster because this means that land in such a city is incomparably more valuable than floor space.
• Urban planners would be able to estimate the costs and benefits of a policy, and how it influences the urban spatial structure and affordability of real estate. They would also be able to estimate the costs various policies imposes on home buyers. For example, they would be able to arrive at an estimate of how much the cost of floor space rises with lower FAR limits. In other words, using Google Earth and similar technologies, urban planners can decide whether certain regulations are justified or not---And if they are not, the extent of the destruction such policies sow.