North India

Delhi NCR is really several markets wearing one name. Lutyens' Delhi and the older colonies trade on scarcity and title history; Gurugram and Noida trade on floor plates, builder reputation and how close a tower sits to the expressway. A price that looks reasonable in one is unreasonable in the other, which is why a published reserve does more work here than almost anywhere else.

The paperwork is where north Indian sales most often stall. Older Delhi property can carry a chain of title going back decades, occasionally with a General Power of Attorney somewhere in it — an arrangement that was common, is no longer sound, and needs a lawyer's eye rather than a broker's assurance. Newer Gurugram and Noida stock is cleaner on title but raises different questions: whether the occupancy certificate is actually in hand, and what the outstanding maintenance position is.

An open sale suits this belt because private valuations diverge so widely. Two buyers looking at the same floor in the same tower can be a long way apart on what it is worth, depending on whether they are buying to live in it or to hold it. Bidding in public settles that in an afternoon rather than over months of separate negotiations, each conducted without knowing what the other side would really accept.