It is fun to write about Goa. Everyone has a take on the sunshine land. Goans lament their sunny paradise has become a grab-land, with filthy-rich outsiders gobbling up farms, flats and mansions. Outsiders feel guilty about turning a virgin paradise into a realty show, but continue to buy property.

If you are a property shopper, you should avoid visiting realty exhibitions in India’s metros; instead, you should take a flight to Goa. Almost everyone there has at least a veranda to sell. Property prices, as they say, are decided after a few rounds of feni, Goa’s most popular spirit. Genuine buyers range from non-resident Goans to Bangalore’s techies; speculators range from local investors (who see a five-bagger opportunity) to national punters (who believe Goa is the next Florida).

Then, there are potential buyers who would love to own small bungalows in Goa to spend their retired lives but are simply slogging because property is polevaulting while salary is crawling. Still, yuppies of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore aspire for a pad or penthouse in Goa.

So how do you go about getting your prized possession? Here’s what TJ, a farmer-turned-broker, told me, even as he described the benefits of Goa’s realty explosion:

1. Everyone is a broker, says TJ. You can smell deals in Goa’s famous eight-table taverns, where properties are identified and priced. The next day, offers are made to local brokers who, in turn, get in touch with bigger brokers or buyers. And, all this happens without the knowledge of landlords (potential sellers), who come into the picture-frame much later. In Goa, everyone is a seller as well.

2. Until recently, says TJ, Goans were wedded to a susegadh lifetyle, or a laidback approach to the world around you. The lifestyle changed in 2005, when property started booming. Neighbours were outbidding neighbours; joint families were denuclearising themselves because of property; and nuclear units were working harder to own second homes. It explains why susegadh has become an aspiration is today’s Goa.

3. TJ is happy Goa has become a high-consumption society. It has happened because of realty, he says. People are entertaining themselves like never before because they have lots of cash to spend. Just imagine, says TJ, a flat was priced at Rs15,000 per sqm three years ago. Today prices have shot up to Rs40,000 per sqm.

4. But will Goa turn into Florida? “Sure,” says TJ, “Goa does not have a sound tourism strategy. What it flaunts is a half-hearted approach to tourism. The moment Goa starts positioning itself as Asia’s tourism capital, and starts ramping up infrastructure, you will see a sea change. So, buy property as fast as you can.”

5. Here are some TJ tips for realty-buyers. Always land in Goa with a lawyer and a scout. While the lawyer would be able to figure out the genuineness of the property titles, and the number of heirs floating around, the scout would sniff for deals in local taverns. And please remember: if you are seen moving around in a Merc, BMW, or even a Corolla, the price will just vroom. So, hire a bike and drive into Goa’s hinterland. Do not even think of owning sea-front flats; their prices will drown you.

Well, you will surely meet people like TJ if you are on a property hunt in Goa. If anything, TJ moments are essential to put Goa’s transformation in perspective. It would be absurd to say that Goa hasn’t changed over the years. It has — even changing the family and the family tree.

Twenty year ago, if you shook my family tree and the creepers that clung to it, doctors, lawyers, and engineers would fall from the top. Forty years ago, only farmers and government officials would slip down. In 2004, real-estate builders made debut.

Now, if you shake my family tree, you may well be buried by a shower of concrete. Of course, not every branch of the family tree is nourished by cement. It only proves that almost every family in Goa has an architect, builder, contractor or a concrete-mixer in its midst.

Indeed, realty is an extension of the Goan family.

Email:vinaykamat@dnaindia.net