Contrasting "Metro" projects announced : TVH Metro Golden Nest (11 Lakhs+) and Ozonegroup Metrozone (95 Lakhs+)

Real estate news is abuzz with two large residential projects being announced today..

Ozonegroup's Metrozone

One is Ozonegroup's announcement of "The Metrozone" residential project at Anna Nagar, Chennai. This is to come up at a prime location on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Anna Nagar - behind Ozone Mall and Adjacent to CPWD Quarters and IOB Staff College.

A total of 1600 apartments are planned in 29 blocks in Ozonegroup's Metrozone, with sizes ranging from 1555 to 4818. The rates start at Rs.95 lakhs and can go upto 1.5 crores for a 4818 sqft penthouse.

More : Ozonegroup's Metrozone - Details and Location Map [placetolive.in]

TVH's Metro Golden Nest

The other project announced was by TVH named "Metro Golden Nest" and falls into the affordable homes segment. Metro Golden Nest is to come up on Sriperumbudur - Kundrathur Road, after Manimangalam/Tambaram road junction.

A total of 832 apartments are planned in 14 blocks of Stilt + 4 floors and 19 blocks of G+3 floors, in TVH's Metro Golden Nest. The rates start at Rs.11 lakhs.

More : TVH's Metro Golden Nest - Details and Location Map [placetolive.in]

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More : Chennai Residential Projects [placetolive.in]

Proposal to increase the 1.5 lakhs tax-exemption towards interest payment of home-loans

The current limit of Rs.1.5 lakhs tax-exemption per year, towards interest payment on home loans, may increase to Rs.2.5 lakhs, if a proposal for the same gets the nod from the Ministry of Finance.

The proposal is said to have been made by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, for consideration in the upcoming Budget presentation in July, with the hope that such a move would help in revitalizing the real-estate industry.

The current limit of 1.5 lakhs is inadequate for single buyers, since payments towards interest component is usually very high in the initial years or repayment.

Buyers would still benefit, if they were to include their spouse as a co-buyer/co-applicant in the home loan, since each one can them can claim exemption upto Rs.1.5 lakhs.

But with the proposed change, there will not be a need to have a co-applicant, just for the sake of tax-saving purposes. And this will also help higher value deals, where again, co-applicants will come into play.

Note that all these limits are for a self-occupied property. For let-out properties, the full interest paid can be exempted, provided one shows the income from the house property, that is, income via rent/lease.

The limit towards repayment of principal, for both self-occupied as well as let-out property (combined), is Rs.1 lakh only. So even if you like to pre-close your loans, over an above the 1 lakh principal, it will not be beneficial with respect to taxes. There seems to be no proposal in changing this and if at all this component is to be changed, it should have an effect on Section 80(C) too.

(News of the proposal by Deepshikha Sikarwar for ET :
Home loan tax break limit may be raised)

Disclaimer : The author is NOT a certified tax-consultant and the views expressed are his own, and based on his personal experiences. You are advised to consult your tax-planner before making decisions.

Bus/Trains connecting your PlaceToLive.in Chennai? MetroCommute has the answers!!

Buying an new apartment or an independent home in a well developed locality is almost impossible for most of us. So we see more and more "affordable homes" coming up in far-off suburbs of Chennai.

Also, during the real estate boom, companies where finding it difficult to find large land banks very near the city and found better incentives to start their factories/development centers in places like Siruseri, Maraimalai Nagar, Sriperumbudur, etc.,. With more jobs moving to those places, it becomes natural for employees to seek homes nearby. Owing to this reason and because of land tracts available for development, reputed builders moved in with their mega townships in those localities. The builders enticed buyers by having schools, malls and even theatres within their projects.

But how well connected is that project's locality with the main city ? How well is it connected to your/your-spouse's place of work ? Will your relatives find it easy to reach your home when they visit Chennai ? Will they be able to catch a MTC bus or a suburban train to your home ?

PlaceToLive.in seeks to provide you with answers to those queries with help from MetroCommute.in. In each of the project listing pages, you will now find a link to MetroCommute.in, listing the buses/trains connecting the locality of the residential project.

So, if you are considering to buy a home in Padur, you will have a link in the project details page to view the Buses / Trains connecting Padur


And once into MetroCommute.in, you can easily find how the project's locality is connected to other specific localities of concern - like say with Parrys or Koyambedu. Or may be to offices in Mount Road or Taramani or Adyar.

Apart from the details on buses/trains connecting the locality, driving directions between any two localities is also provided. Driving directions suggests the route for the shortest driving duration, which at times may not be the the same as shortest route, with respect to distance traveled.

Hope you find this integration useful.If you have any suggestions, feel free to post it as a comment here.

Unitech "North Town" Brahma & Ananda to start at 20 and 19 Lakhs resp.

Last time we reported Unitech's plans to offer homes for 5-10 Lakhs. It seems its new projects in in Perambur (near Vyasarpadi Jeeva, on Binny Mills grounds) under the umbrella "North Town", will start at 19 lakhs only (not in the 5-10 range).



The North Town - Ananda project consists of 9 towers (T-01 to T-09) of G+13 floors offering apartments of sizes 622 sqft to 1363 sqft and starts at Rs.20 lakhs.

While the Brahma project which is also part of the North Town consists of 12 towers (T-10 to T-22, excluding T-13). Brahma will also have of G + 13 floors with apartments in the sizes 630 sqft to 1394 sqft and starts at Rs.19 lakhs.

Amenities include :

* Swimming pool
* Kids play area
* Multi purpose hall
* Gymnasium
* Billiards/pool table
* Table tennis
* Power back-up for common areas

For further details, including location on Google Maps, refer to:
Details of Unitech North Town - Ananda
Detail of Unitech North Town - Brahma

XS Real - FairSquare Amity at Helios, Padur on OMR - Starting at 18 Lakhs (for 825 sqft, all incl.)

XS Real under its subsidiary FairSquare has launched Amity at Helios City on Padur, OMR. XS Real terms FairSquare as "the compact-home brand" and adds the tagline "Smart Functional Homes".

The branding reflects its intention to retain XS Real brand for homes with class as depicted in its ads for XS Real Bella Tuscany (iPhone vs a normal phone and Neelkamal type plastic chair vs stylish sofa).

So, does it mean FairSquare's Amity at Helios City is equivalent to a normal phone/plastic chair, focussed just on functional aspects ?! Not sure, but the amenities include ..

* Swimming Pool
* Gym
* Indoor Games/ shuttle court
* Children's play area
* Covered Parking
* Power backup for lifts, water pumps.

The expected date of completion is Dec 2010.

And when compared to existing projects at Padur, by players like Jains and ETA Star, the rates for very low. Refer to the real estate projects in Padur [PlaceToLive.in]

The 2 to 3 bedroom apartments have sizes in the range of 825 to 1101. The rates are mentioned to be Rs.16 to 21 lakhs (18 to 23.51 all inclusive).

For more details refer to :
XS Real - FairSquare Amity (at Helios City) Details
Location of XS Real - FairSquare Amity (at Helios City)