Coimbatore, the largest industrial centre after Chennai, is currently going through an excellent phase of development. The interesting part is the increasing popularity of apartment complexes.
“In the last six months alone, we have noticed a marked increase in enquiries for apartments in areas along RS Puram, Avinashi Road and even Race Course,” says Radha Seshagiri, of Illam Property Consultants.
According to PropIndex (Jul-Sep 2014), a quarterly India Apartment Index report on 11 cities by Magicbricks, the Rs 40-70 lakh budget range was most preferred in the city with 40 per cent buyers showing interest. Properties priced in this range were also the most supplied with 28 per cent availability.
This is an interesting trend and industry players attribute a very unique reason for this.
V Arumugham, a well known social worker for women’s education and empowerment for over a decade, blames it on the freebee culture that each government has propagated and which has been successfully implemented in the city.
“The labour section has not been empowered, instead it has been the recipient of several rebates and concessions,” says Arumugham. “They get rice that is extremely subsidised, EWS homes that are state funded, in addition to TV, idli-dosa grinders, electricity and even water connections at every 20-25 feet. This makes it extremely difficult to get the men to work, especially for a prolonged period.”
This is reiterated by others who are in the construction industry.
“It is extremely difficult to find reliable local carpenters, electricians or plumbers who are capable of undertaking work for an entire home,’ says Vineetha Balakrishnan, the co-founder of Dursham architects, an architecture and interior firm in Coimbatore. “After struggling with labour related issues for a long time, today, we prefer to get people from outside the city to do these jobs. But this increases our overheads enormously and consequently, the expenditure for our clients.”
This, many believe, is one of the reasons for the increase in popularity of apartment complexes.
“While the demand is driven by local population, the city witnessed mediocre growth. But with the increased presence of R&D healthcare units, the expanding export oriented textile and auto manufacturing units along with a few IT majors, the city reported an increase in the presence of white collar jobs. This has given Coimbatore realty the much needed impetus in the last six months,” says Seshagiri.
“Initially this segment prefers to buy or rent an independent house. But when faced with the lack of trained manpower to make even minor modifications to the house and the high price of `housing, food and payment for work’ when hiring help from outside the city, they are quick to opt for apartment complexes, where all this is taken care of by the developers,” she adds.
Thus, prime areas along the RS Puram, Avinashi Road, Saravanampatti and Race Course have a large number of upcoming apartment complexes, today. There is demand for smaller apartments from professionals and for the Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1 crore from NRIs and retirees. Prices for a multi-storey apartment in Avinashi Road could cost anything between Rs 4,000-5,700 per sq ft, while in RS Puram prices are in the range of Rs 6,000-7,000 per sq ft.
Whatever reason being quoted for this trend, there is no denying that increased growth in the apartment culture seems to be catching on in Coimbatore.
Source: Times of India / Kanchana Dwarakanath, Magicbricks.com Bureau