Guruvayur, the most important pilgrimage center of South India is attracting Builders and Developers to come up with more offers of Residential Apartments. Guruvayur apartment
A holy visit to the Guruvayurappan temple and the sight of the Lord’s idol are enough to make devotees feel pure and blessed. The no of Pilgrims visiting the temple is increasing day by day. This in turn, increases the need for more living spaces. Other than staying in Hotels and lodges, people want to be in homely like atmosphere before heading to the sacred temple. They want the coziness of their own home to make the arrangements for the temple visit. All these wants and expectations of the pilgrims prompted Builders to come up with various Residential offers. Now, we can see more no of Residential Apartments are on the construction stage in and around Guruvayur. They offer Service Apartments, Studio Apartments, 1 BHK, 2 BHK and 3BHK Apartments. Service Apartments and Studio Apartments are considered to be apt when it comes to the residential needs of pilgrims who normally stay for one day or two days or even one week. Service Apartments offer the most modern amenities of a star Hotel coupled with the comforts of a house where a family can stay with the feeling of their own home. Investors also find it a good investment as they are assured of a regular monthly return by sourcing out their space to outside agencies that run it. Studio Apartments also attract more people who wish to stay for short duration. It comes with living cum dining room, bedroom with attached toilets and kitchen all in one space together .The prevailing selling rate for studio Apartments is around Rs. 2300/ sq.ft. The West nada and East Nada are seeing more no of Apartments coming up as these are the main entrances to the temple. Also, major roads to Thrissur, Kozhikkode and Ernakulam go through this side. Leading builder Cheloor has come up with two Apartment projects there in Guruvayur offering Studio and 1BHK flats. Santhimadom Builders and Developers based in Guruvayur has already come up with premium Villa projects. A few other builders also follow suit by launching Apartments in Guruvayur envisaging the demand in the future.

‘Luxury’ was the keyword in the last boom with Kerala builders, all and sundry focusing on the same segment. Yes, kerala was a consumer market and NRI’s and malayalees domiciled in other parts of India were the target customers. Yes, a lot many in this  audience have seen the best of places and have a concept of quality. They lapped the offerings at a ‘premium’ without too much of a difficulty. Yes some of them even went in for a second place with borrowed money, but then that was it. The frenzy was such that anyone who could afford or were eligible to finance have bought one or more properties in Kerala or elsewhere. So, assuming most of them have leveraged themselves out let us see as to what could drive the next boom.

The fact is that for the market to expand you need a new set of buyers. So who would that be? To find this out we will have to do a  bit of math and look at the logic. Let us assume that the price per square feet for a standard apartment in the major cities/towns of Kerala averaged Rs.2300. Assuming that the standard size off a 2 bed room apartment is 1000 sq ft, that works out to 23 lakhs + registration to work out to  roughly Rs. 25 lakhs. At that price assume bank financing upto 80% (Banks right now are quite wary!!) which is 20 lakhs. At an approximate monthly instalment of Rs.1000 per 1 lakh for a 15 year loan that would work out to Rs.20000 a month as EMI. Banks while checking borrower’s eligibility look at a limit of say 60% of free cash flow toward the EMI. This means one needs have a minimum monthly salary of say Rs.40000 to qualify for a loan of a that size. That leaves one guessing as to how many would qualify. The answers for the builders are available right there.

The next boom will have to driven by the concept of affordable housing in kerala. Right now this is an exception. Affordable housing does not mean builders cutting corners and quality getting compromised. The system will correct itself to work with greater efficiency and delivering quality output to the buyer at affordable prices.

Buyer complaints on endless delays in project/property handover is now commonplace. There are enough number of cases where delays range from a mere 3 months to 1.5 years in some cases with no firm commitments. True, builders have been caught on the wrong foot by recession but that hardly justifies the concerns of buyers. Real estate in Cochin, Real estate in Calicut and Real estate in Trivandrum have been the worst hit in Kerala.
One major reason has been that many builders went on a land buying spree during the real-estate hey days and paid big rupee for creation of land banks on the assumption that the market is uni-directional. They over stretched and over leveraged in their rush to acquire properties. Money from launched projects were first diverted into this act in the hope that the cash cycle would take care of itself. With the market crash, builders including many of the big ones found themselves with huge assets and dismal cash flow. The only option was to sell some of those assets at hugely discounted values which is what some of them have been forced to do.
Invariably, all builders have delayed projects testing the patience of many a buyer. Remember, a lot many of these buyers paid a premium during the boom to book properties and if they were to sell it today it is likely to be at a loss. Many of these buyers have taken finance and this is a cost which they have to bear for no fault of theirs. Opportunity loss in terms of rentals is also to be considered. Of course the fine print on the contract provisions for nominal compensation from the builder but would that suffice?

The Kannur real estate construction scene has been evolving over the last 3 to 4 years. While land prices have shot up like the rest of the market apartments have made a slow entry into the hiherto unknown territory. With its the strong NRI base, Cannanore would not have missed the radar. No doubt the recession has had an impact as builders report sales have been far and few. There are prominent builders like Oceanus and Malabar builders who have multiple projects in various stages of completion. However it is some of the smaller players who are more focussed. There seems to be a preference for villas over apartments as we see developers like Squarefeet builders launching a villa cum residential project in Chala, not far from the city centre. While rates for apartments have come down to around Rs.1500 to Rs.1800 per sq ft, villas come at around Rs.2000 plus per sq ft. Apartments in Kannur. Villas in Kannur

Retail development in Kochi

No doubt, the M.G Road is still the nerve centre of retail trade in Kochi with Marine Drive supplementing it. But what does the  future hold? There are some fundamental aspects to look into when talking about the direction retail hubs Cochin would take.  Kochi real etsate.

Retail concentration in Ernakulam is mostly in and around M.G Road, the Marine Drive and Broadway. Of these Broadway has remained stuck in time with no major change happening over the last few decades. M.G road holds the chunk of retail establishments and these include jewellery, clothing, footwear, eateries, banks, theatres and commercial offices. M.G Road has run out of quality retail space and there is limited activity happening at the moment. Apart from the Peevees mall coming up right next to Abad Plaza and the couple of smaller ones closer to the north end there is little by way of retail expansion. This has lead to rentals turning more expensive and the retailers looking at newer centers of growth. Marine Drive has seen some good amount of retail growth in the last few years with the addition of a couple of mini malls. There is more coming up including the Kerala Trade Centre of the Kerala Chamber of Commerce. New developments coming up north towards the Goshree Bridge is also likely to pick up. Current rentals for retail spaces in these prime roads range from Rs.60 per sq ft to Rs.150 per sq ft.

The south end of M.G Road is yet to pick up but the cost of real estate there is likely to have a bearing on any potential development that side. Again a good length of M.G Road still houses pre-1980 buildings. With increased FSI there could be a pick up in building make-overs with substantial space getting added. Ernakulam property

As to the east the Kaloor-Kadavanthra road with its swanky new look could draw parelells to M.G Road in more ways than one. Its proximity to residential areas will help its case. Panampilly Nagar could also emerge as a mini retail hub which could house upmarket brands. Rentals on this road currently ranges between Rs.25 per sq ft to Rs. 80 per sq ft.

However the biggest challenger to retail in the Central Business District will be the NH-47 bye-pass. It is already home to a number of businesses including car showrooms, accessories, furniture dealers. With 2 (Oberon and the Souk) malls starting operations, 2 more under construction (Grand Village (A P project and Lulu) and few more on the drawing board (Prestige )one wouln’t be surprised if it takes the sting out of M.G Road. What helps the bye-pass’s case is the traffic situation in Ernakulam and the fact that the typical customer is not someone who resides in Ernakulam. A bulk of these customers pass through the bye-pass to get to CBD. They would be glad to go in for more convenient shopping.

What could change the dynamics back in favour of the CBD?

Traffic buildup is becoming the biggest deterrent for shopping in Ernakulam. The vehicle population has been growing exponentially and in the absence of any new public transport intiatives the situation is going to deteriorate. The main entry points to the city which is the north and south overbridges are taking loads way beyond their capacity. The Pullepady bridge has been in development for a long time now and has not seen the light of the day. Every now and then we hear noises on overbridges at Atlantis, Pachalam but these are distant dreams. Ernakulam property

Kochi Metro is what provides a glimmer of hope. Given Ernakulam’s layout the metro is the best thing that could happen to Kochi.Once completed this has the potential to change the face of the city. The current alignment runs through the nerve and contrary to perceptions aired by various merchant’s fora this has the potential to take Kochi to the big league.

Broadway and surrounding areas are the heart of wholesale trade and could be anything from metals to hardware, sanitary, wood, interiors, plastics, toys, clothes. The city’s main market is also located here. Moving the wholesale market to the outskirts should be looked at as this could ease the pressure on the Ernakulam main lines. A majority of shoppers, retail and commercial live in areas upto 200 kms radius. Not everyone would require to come into the city and add congestion.