By: Ravi Sinha
With the reasonable expectation of a roof over the head not very long ago, the real estate boom in the last decade has scaled up the liberty of choice for the average home buyers. While the aspirations of even the middle and lower middle income with moderate budgets have gone up, there are very many residential projects launched in recent times that seem to fill the gap with the promise of faster deliveries, hi-tech amenities, luxurious lifestyle, lush green surroundings within the affordable range of 20-40 lakhs.
However, amidst this problem of plenty one also goes through all those anxiety pangs that normally come while mulling over the decision of buying a home. In the euphoria of buying a house most of the first-time buyers overlook their wants and needs and make mistakes. This is where a house hunting checklist comes into the picture. If you create a checklist of the things you need in a home as well as other things worth looking at along the way, you’ll have a much easier time with the house hunting process. The first step, however, is to keep in mind the budget and then look for what best is available in the given budget.
Experts believe that the legal and practical checklist remains the same whether one is opting for a house worth Rs. 20 lakhs, 30 lakhs or 40 lakhs. However, the value addition that is on offer goes up with more budget in hand. Location, size, construction, amenities and outdoors are some of the parameters to consider when the buyer shells out 30 lakhs or 40 lakhs for the house. “The home buyers should verify land titles, approvals, building plans, verification of specification and amenities communicated by developer and mentioned in application form or agreement to sell, payment plans, if the project is bank approved or not and the most important aspect is track record of the builder including past performance and market reputation,” says Navin M Raheja, Managing Director of Raheja Developers.
However, Raheja adds a rider that customer needs to change their perspective and have realistic expectations if one has a budget of Rs. 20 lakhs. They fail to differentiate between wants and needs because maximum end users make decision on the rate offered by the developers irrespective of quality and reputation of the builder and they end up investing in the project of a non- reputed builder or in a project which is not up to the mark or specifications are not as per the requirement.
Agrees Harmit Chawla, VP Sales & Marketing, Paras Buildtech, “Needs have to be classified into basic, secondary and tertiary level. There is no point to offer swimming pool and wifi facility with a Rs. 20 lakhs house as most of these buyers may not be having a laptop. What they should look for is location & connectivity with the work place, product value, track record and intent of the developer, his financial background and architecture”.
Within the industry also there lies skepticism over Rs. 20 lakhs housing. Atul Modak, Head, Kohinoor City says, “I think most of the time the so called affordable housing is not purchased by end user but they are purchased by people with higher income group as another investment. Secondly, as the land price in cities is exorbitant, the so called affordable housing is always at far off locations.”
Sunil Dahiya, Managing Director of Vigneshwara Developers is more candid on the issue when he says, “in the price range upto 20 lakhs my frank assessment is that more than buyers, the developers have to be skeptical. There remains a huge gap between product design and product pricing, and it is here that I find more speculators than end-users with credit reliability and credibility coming forward. No wonder, many of such projects eventually see cash flow shrinking.”
Amar Kapoor, Director of Urban Heights, however, advocates living life king-size even with a budget of Rs. 20 lakhs. He believes since the demand drivers of today’s residential properties are the young population who want bigger house with quality of life, the developers today focus on all the recreational facilities, vitrified tiles, electrical appliances, bathroom fittings etc. “Today’s young population does not mind travelling two and half hours to work if he is getting A1 quality living in exchange. Moreover, one normally buys a house with a time horizon of 5-10 years when the connectivity will be much better. With the kind of fast paced development that is happening today, even a place like Manesar which is further down Gurgaon is selling like a hot cake in the given budget of Rs. 20 lakhs,” he says.
The final choice rests with the home buyers if they have a budget limit while purchasing the house. Whether they want to go for a modern living on the periphery of the city or would prefer to live close to the city with less fancy offerings. Whatever be the choice, they must get their checklist in place before house hunt begins. The catchword here is not to get lured by fancy international picture and remain realistic with the expectations. Expecting luxuries like the golf course is fraught with danger keeping in mind the ground realities where affordable housing project is always a challenge for the developer too.
If the budget is Rs 20 lakhs and one is moving from a rented flat to his own, one should look at the location and distance from the work place. Since most of such projects are on the periphery of the city, one must also look for the infrastructure within the project. A buyer can be a bit fancy if he has a budget of Rs. 30lakhs expecting the size of the bedroom & drawing room to be a bit bigger and facilities like car parking being provided. A difference of 10-15 per cent can be expected if the buyer is looking for a project nearer to the city. With the budget of Rs. 40 lakhs, however, one can expect to elevate the level of living with far better architecture and amenities, like garden & play area, swimming pools, club, modular kitchen and full power back-up.
