New Delhi, Sept. 10 -- India's top real estate developers, including DLF, Godrej Properties and M3M, are competing for prized land parcels to fuel expansion, as steady residential sales and launch momentum squeeze the supply of clean-title plots and push land prices to new benchmarks.

Between 2021 and the January-March quarter of 2026, over 18,100 acres of land changed hands, with Tier 1 cities and residential developments grabbing a lion's share. From 813 acres in 2021 to 6,181 acres in 2025, annually transacted acreage has risen sharply, reflecting the scale, pace and value as land has emerged as the new gold for developers and investors alike, according to property advisory Cushman and Wakefield's latest data.

This week, Gurugram-bas...