Bottom Line: Coimbatore is fast showing the growth trends of any other metropolitan city and skyscrappers are a new reality in the city.
R Karthik returned to the home town Coimbatore after having spent nearly a decade in the Gulf region where the only option of living has been high rises and skyscrapers. He had developed the liking for such vertical living so much that he had a feeling of missing that sky high living back home as the prevailing housing culture has been standalone residential units when he left the city.
Even though the apartment culture had made inroads by then, still the norm has been the low rise and mid rise construction as the residents of Coimbatore were rather uncomfortable with the sky high apartments by then. However, the sprouting high rise apartment complexes that line the city surprised him completely.
“These swank and comfortable apartments are as good as any other city across the world. Coimbatore indeed has changed in all these years and it is reflective in the way high rises are being preferred over even the villas. I feel affordability and non-availability of land are the primary reasons for vertical growth of this city resulting in mushrooming of high rise apartments. More importantly, the residents of the city also seem to have realised the need to decongest the city and hence these apartments have an overwhelming patronage. The very concept of living and liking for an apartment has changed,” says Karthik.
The take of this NRI may seem to be over projection of high rises in Coimbatore real estate market as of now. Analysts, on the contrary, seem to be in agreement with this NRI. They point out that the growth of Coimbatore city over the last over two decades has not been uniform and the growth has been more along either side of Avinashi Road, Tiruchi Road, and to a considerable extent on Marudhamalai Road.
Compared to Avinashi Road and Tiruchi Road, other residential areas have never been witness to proportionate developments along the other major roads. They suggest that the horizontal growth of the city cannot be sustained anymore due to infrastructure bottlenecks as well as other civic issues.
The only way forward for the city is to grow vertically. The encouraging fact is that Coimbatore is fast showing the growth trends of any other metropolitan city and hence it is but natural that high rises are increasingly being adopted as the common practice than exception.
Developers active in this market rather point out that Coimbatore has the potential to grow as the city of not just high rises but truly skyscraper if the migration as a fall out of employment prospects keeps maintaining the same pace and momentum. Since, Coimbatore does not have the luxury of more planned satellite townships or development plan for peripheral areas the city has no other option but to grow vertically.
What makes the case of skyscrapers in Coimbatore even more strong is the fact that unlike other sky rise cities like Delhi or Mumbai Coimbatore is a small city in terms of its geographical size and outreach. Hence, it is all the more important that the way this city is proving to be a magnet for young expat professionals it is planned to go vertically high. This will not only accommodate more and more people within the same space of land parcels but also make sure that the city remains decongested.
From a corporate standpoint it also makes the feasibility of what the young professionals nowadays desire the most—walk-to-work. The vertical expansion thus also holds promise for the city to strengthen its claim as one of the best corporate destinations in the country. So, Coimbatore has all the necessary market dynamics that lead a city to emerge as the city of skyscrapers.
Analysts too seem to suggest the same, though everyone has a different take on the prospective timelines for the same. On the chances of Coimbatore emerging as the city of skyscrapers in future Anurag Jhanwar, Director, CRISIL Real Estate Ratings maintains that due to strong economic fundamentals there has been paradigm shift in demand from independent houses to apartments and the next logical step would be skyscrapers.
“With the opening of IT parks and manufacturing industries, there has been an influx of population into the city which demands houses within the affordable budget segment. This has initiated a series of new developments throughout the city. One of the ways in which houses can become affordable is through higher Floor Space Index (FSI) and construction of skyscrapers. Coimbatore has all the infrastructure required to embrace the skyscraper concept,” says Jhanwar.
Raj Koneru, Regional Owner, RE/MAX Rest of Tamil Nadu agrees that Coimbatore as a skyscraper city has immense potential and some of the prime area housing projects are built on the same idea. According to him, mini skyscrapers at Ponnaiahrajapuram and other similar places have attracted quite a lot of attention. The rising demand of such homes clearly gives positive signals and indicates that this is the new trend of homes in Coimbatore. It has to emerge as the future skyscraper city of India.
“Current prices are quite in flux with regards to the Coimbatore real estate. Areas like Peelamedu, Sai Baba Colony and Saravanampatti are priced from Rs. 3366 per sq. ft. to Rs. 5229 per sq. ft. Saravanampatti is a slightly having more appreciation. Similarly, Peelamedu also has seen an increase in the prices while Sai Baba Colony has recorded slight depreciation to the aggregate value per sq. ft. One of the primary reasons is that these areas are now considered potential market areas. Depending upon the customers’ engagement, prices appreciate and depreciate. Presently, seeing the trend of interest of customers and conversions, these areas have seen an increase in their aggregate value,” says Koneru.
In conclusion, it may be premature to say that Coimbatore has come up on the list of cities with apartments touching the skylines. The city does not figure anywhere in the list of tallest buildings of India as of now. Forget ranking on the global or even Indian parameters, it does not even match the Kochi or Chennai market of South India in terms of sheer height of the buildings.
The only visible trend in the city has been the fact that there is change in the luxury consciousness of the buyers in the city. Instead of opting for villas the new age buyers prefer skyscrapers in the city with all the lifestyle options integrated with the residential project. They are the buyers who are exposed to global luxury living and expect the same in the city as well.
As a result of buyers’ change of taste and aspirations, there is a visible change in the way residential projects are being planned nowadays. Not only the height of the projects is getting increased, the new projects that are being launched are increasingly getting taller with add-on features. This is helping Coimbatore to scale up on the high rises and if taken as a trend, it definitely shows the way forward and if the momentum continues Kochi may soon be on the list of cities that boast of scaling up to live close to the moon.
What can be vouchsafed at this point of time is that if conscious efforts are taken by both the developers and the government authorities then skyscrapers are definitely going to find a new destination in Coimbatore.
