Low prices now come with a price guarantee !!

Many projects in the city had annouced price cuts recently, including DLF for its Garden City project and Arihant for its Heirloom project.

Buyers waiting for the prices to fall further, before they commit themselves to a project, has now become a matter of concern to builders. 

Doshi Housing, which announced the Phase II of the Nakshatra project in Tambaram has come up with a "Price Guarantee" scheme to address this issue. Its ad read "If the price falls further, you get the lower price". (Read details of Doshi Nakshatra II in the Budget Homes Blog)

Growing Trends

A comparison of the Phase I and Phase II of Doshi Nakshatra, as given in the table below..

	Phase I	Phase II
Rate/SQFT	Rs.2995	Rs.2795
Minimum number of BRs	2-BR	1-BR
Minimum Size	1155 sqft	555 sqft
Minimum Total Rate	34 Lakhs	15.5 Lakhs

..throws light on the growing trend towards smaller affordable homes. And a further offer of price guarantee, like the one offered by Doshi Housing, should trigger commitments from buyers.

Funky Venkys, Rockin' Raos, Party Kumars and Trendy Shahs find their residence at just Rs.1899/sqft at Sabari's Serenity

"Where will the Funky Venkys find their perfect fun address at just Rs.1899/- per s.ft ?" read the ad on Monday. 

This was followed by Rockin' Raos, Party Kumars and Trendy Shahs until Thursday.

And the answer was also out on Thursday, though not in the ads but in the business section of The Hindu. The Sabari Group which has interests in hotels, supermarkets and property development and which had developed four landmark buildings on OMR under the banner of Vishranthi Sabari, in last couple of years, was planning to officially launch Sabari's Serenity on 24 April 2009.

A total of 936 apartments are planned, starting with 324 in Phase I. The sizes of the 1 to 3 bedroom apartments range from 580 sqft to 2362 sqft.

For more details read our post in the Budget Homes blog :
At 1899/sqft, Sabari's Serenity at Siruseri, starts at 11.86 Lakhs

Alliance Gardens vs Akshaya Adena - Battle for the Senior Citizen market

With Alliance Group announcing the launch of its project at Anna Nagar Extension, Alliance Gardens for Senior Citizens, touting the project to be "A unique residential project" and "first project of its kind in the country", Akshaya Homes - was quick to hop on and announce its plans of its upcoming project Akshaya Adena at Padur (on OMR) for Senior Citizens.

While the Alliance Gardens project in Padi/Anna Nagar Extension, offers 225 senior-citizen friendly apartments, Akshaya Adena, to come up right behind its Adair project, offers 145 apartments on its Padur project which have been designed to suit the needs of the elderly.

At Alliance Gardens there will be a 24x7 nursing centre along with a doctor's consultation room and an ambulance service through tie-ups with corporate hospitals, whereas Akshaya's project plans to sell at least one flat to a doctor who will be asked to run a clinic on the premises. Not sure if that doctor will be one with around 5 decades of experience - I mean a senior citizen ;-). Jokes apart, while Akshaya's approach is a creative answer to the need, my personal opinion is that Alliance's approach is better in this aspect. Probably, Akshaya too can sell/rent an apartment out to corporate hospitals, so as to house something on the lines of Apollo Clinics.

Other common features in both the projects include anti-skid tiles, rails/grab-bars in bathrooms.

Regarding Akshaya's project that, "A seat would also be provided inside the bathroom for people to sit and take bath. In the kitchen, we will provide trolleys for moving gas cylinders.", seems just a normal convenience. Anyone can buy a good plastic chair to suit the elderly and a gas-cylinder trolley is becoming common in almost all houses old/new.

Similarly designing homes without sharp edges seems essential for homes, not just for elderly, but also for children safety. Having said that, it not uncommon for builders to ignore such aspects in their constructions and it is good that Akshaya is looking into those finer details.

Also, Akshaya's feature of ramps with railings, instead of steps, inside the building is surely a very good feature.

Some features like "panic alarm buttons" mentioned as part of the Alliance Gardens and can also be replicated by Akshaya in its Adena project.

Alliance Gardens project also touts common dining halls offering multi-cuisine and nutritional meals at cost to residents as and when they don’t feel like cooking at home, which will sure benefit senior citizens. Akshaya's quick response to media does not mention anything to address this aspect, but hopefully they address this point too, when they make the official launch.

Akshaya's project offers apartments in sizes ranging from 650 sqft to 1100 sqft and priced at Rs.18 lakhs to Rs 30 lakhs (plus registration charges), while Alliance offers apartments of 650 sqft to 890 sqft in size and priced at Rs 19.5 lakhs to Rs 26.7 lakhs.

Located at different ends of Chennai, Alliance Gardens and Akshaya Adena are sure good options for senior citizens planning on their peaceful retirement.

DLF to resell apartments to refund buyers - penalties applicable.

DLF may resell apartment units which were booked by customers who now want to exit its projects, and if there is going to be a loss in such a resale deal, it is likely to be transferred to those wanting to exit. DLF also plans to charge a penalty, since the customers had already entered into a 3-year contract with DLF to purchase the apartment unit and now want to exit within a year.

The article quotes analyst opinion that such a resale is likey to reduce the rates by 10 to 15 per cent.

Read the news at MSN News [news.in.msn.com]

In normal cases, when a new apartment is sold by a builder, the UDS alone is registered at the Sub-Registrar's office (at the guideline value of the land), while the buyer enters an construction agreement with the builder. In case of resale, the complete value of the apartment is to be registered in the sale deed, driving up the registration and stamp duty charges.

As per earlier reports on the UDS issue in DLF Garden City [placetolive.in], DLF had not taken the UDS + construction agreement route. So, the the implications on the stamp duty front for the proposed resale is not very clear.

(This post is now part of the Discussion on DLF GardenCity, OMR, Chennai)

Dugar Gold City, Prince Village, Prince Residenzia - More Affordable Homes

The choices available for affordable housing seems to be increasing, with more projects offering apartments in the sub-15-lakhs range.

Some of the recent projects covered in our blog focussing on Budget Homes.. 

Dugar MME Gold City (Phase II) on OMR 

Near SSN College.

Starts at Rs.10.43 Lakhs (for 1 BR, 444 sqft)

Prince Village at Tondiarpet

Near Castrol and VOC Nagar Station.

Starts at 13.80 Lakhs (for 1 BR, 600 sqft)

Prince Residenzia, Sriperumbudur

Near Sri Venkateswara Engineering College

Starts at Rs.9.57 lakhs (1 BR, 440 sqft)

As credit in-flows from residential projects offering higher-valued apartments have "slowed down" (if not "stopped altogether") and in some cases projects have negative cash flow from customers - with some customers who had made initial payments, exiting out of the projects (as in the case of DLF Garden City), credit in-flow becomes important for the builders, who now turn to affordable housing offering sub-15-lakhs homes. 

Hope such projects benefit those who had been left out in the earlier mad rush.

DLF offers further discount of Rs.200/SQFT, for its Garden City project

LiveMint's Shabana Hussain reports that DLF has sent out letters to its buyers of DLF Garden City project, offering a further discount of Rs.200/SQFT for timely agreements and payments. And, this is in addition to the price reduction done recently.

The offer is supposed to be applicable for buyers who sign their agreements before April 30, 2009.

Read the news at LiveMint [livemint.com]

(This post is now part of Discussion on DLF Garden City, at PlaceToLive.in)

Plaza Tranquil Acres at Kovilambakkam

The Kovilambakkam/Keelkattalai junction is one good location with easy access to the City and to GST and OMR-IT Corridor.

The Plaza Group, which has developed multiple projects in the vicinity including Green Acres, Plaza Park and Plaza Court in Perungudi and Serene Acres in Thoraipakkam, is now launching a new project at Kovilambakkam, named Plaza Tranquil Acres (view the location map).

Plaza Tranquil Acres will have 2 and 3 bedroom residential units coming up in 7 blocks (Stilt + 4), with units ranging from 1011 SQFT to 1529 SQFT in size. The rate Rs.3175/SQFT, which works out to cost a total of Rs.32 Lakhs and above.

The project is exclusively Marketed by Homebay (subsidiary of JLLM).

More details available at : Plaza Tranquil Acres

Provident CosmoCity Phase 1 sold out, Phase 2 launched

The Phase 1 of CosmoCity project by Provident Housing (a wholly owned subsidiary of Puravankara Projects) comprising of about 500 apartments is said to have been successfully sold out.

And, now Phase 2 of Provident CosmoCity is open for bookings.

Premium 3 bedroom apartments of size 983 to 1062 SQFT are available in Phase 2 of CosmoCity. The total cost starts at 17.90 lakhs and goes up to 19.90 for 1062 SQFT apartment.

The project is located very near the Siruseri IT Park (Location Map of Provident Cosmo City), making it an attractive option for those working there. 

Further details available at : Provident CosmoCity

(Provident Housing Cosmo City was covered in our blogs in this earlier post)

Affordable Options : Vijay Shanthi's Infiniti, starting at 9.5 Lakhs

Vijay Shanthi has now announced its second major affordable option named Infiniti on NH-4 (Bangalore Highway), following the major project at Thaiyur (on OMR) - Vijay Shanthi Lotus Pond.

Vijay Shanthi Infiniti is to come up at Chettipedu (near Sriperumbudur), right next to Queensland Theme Park and Saveetha Engineering College (as shown in this location map) and targets the working class employeed in the nearby MNC manufacturing units like Dell,  Hyundai Motors, Motorola, Saint Gobain and Samsung.

The project will consist of 9 blocks (or towers) and will have 1, 2 and 3 bed room apartments in the sizes ranging from 365 to 1058 SQFT. The rate as mentioned in their website is Rs.2600/SQFT, making an apartment as affordable as Rs.9.5 lakhs (all inclusive).

More details are available at PlaceToLive.in : Vijay Shanthi Infiniti