Being in Chennai for last 20 years, I still don’t own a house. Due to peer pressure, I was on a look out. My initial thought was to buy a flat.
Location wise, a place close to office, airport, seaside, access to metro and GST Road, is what I preferred. Hence my search easily narrowed to 200 feet radial road – Pallavaram to Duraipakkam road, also I travel daily in this route to office.
During partial lockdowns, visited all the following projects, that are coming up in the radial road. Allianz Galleria, TVS Emerald, Agni Pelican Heights, Puranvankara Windermere, DRE 90 Degrees etc.
Result: It’s was a complete disappointment. The dream of owning a flat in a community, completely got faded.
Reason: Costs. Exorbitantly high! Trust me, there is no reason, why the costs are so higher.
But it’s just the sheer greed of the builders!
Let me explain you, I was looking for a 3BHK, with quality construction. All the projects I enquired, have kept a base price of around 80Lakhs. (irrespective of the total area.) On top of it, in additions they charge close 40 to 45 Lakhs in the name of floor raise charges, car parking, club house charges, eb, water connections, gas lines, advance maintenance charges, corpus funds etc. etc. The list becoming endless. Even some builders have included DTH connection charges of around 15k. What nonsense, are we fools? Summing all, the total price comes to approximately 1.2C to 1.5C. The worst issue is, you will get only 60 to 65% on the total square feet as carpet area, eventually your flat will look smaller. But you pay a huge amount for common amenities. How much? Around 40 Lakhs.
Let’s look at the value they provide,
Allianz Galleria – the flats are very small and it’s disappointing to see even a 1500+ square feet flat looks inadequate and cramped. TVS Emerald, Agni Pelican Heights (I don’t even like the elevation), DRA 90 degrees are all, one or the other way, fell short of expectations. TVS Emerald pathetic. They don’t know how to even handle customer queries. Most of the sales team I met, they neither don’t have patience in answering our questions nor clearly explaining us. They look visibly, as if they are doing a favor for us.
It was a complete let down.
Guys, face the reality.
Consider a family, who is going to take a huge loan in buying your properties. They should be paying all the loan throughout their lifetime, which will have a negative cascading effect on their children education, lifestyle etc. Because they will be paying most of their salary as EMI.
Early this month, Hiranandani reduced rates by 20% discount. A welcome move.
Hope you might have read the latest interview of Kotak Mahindra in Business Standard. Realtors cannot grow or come out of this Catch 22 situation, without reducing the prices and clearing the inventory.
Most importantly, get the real definition of Quality Living! But definitely not living in cramped homes, shelling huge money every month as maintenance.
By the way, what am I going to do, for a house? On a deep thinking mode. Will keep you updated. But not a foolish option.
PS: Of all the pack, Puravankara Windermere, I think has the best construction, spacious pathways and well-ventilated flats. The society is neatly laid out compared with other builders in the same area. But unfortunately, you need to shell out lot of money every month for water. So, opted out.
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