Honey, they’ve shrunk the room!

[webmaster]

Times of India 19-April-2009

Honey, they’ve shrunk the room!
Divya A | TNN


Don’t be surprised if your dream house comes a lot smaller now. Property developers may be cutting prices to get long-delayed projects off the ground but buyers get less house for their money. Who gains and how much?
Anurag Mathur, MD of real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield, says the price of a residential apartment is fixed on the following basis: Cost of land, construction, government taxes and profit margin. “While a developer can do nothing about land prices and taxes, he can certainly toy with profit margins and work on an effective construction cost, the benefits of which can be passed on to the end-user. This is what builders are doing now,” says Mathur.
So, affordable housing has become the buzzword as the real estate sector seeks to revive its flagging fortunes. Many believe people looking to buy a flat for less than Rs 20 lakh stand to gain. Mathur points out that these buyers benefit from reduced home loan rates as well.
But there is no gain without pain. These are no-frills purchases. A study by Nelson India, a subsidiary of the American architecture firm, says that construction costs can be substantially reduced by Rs 350 per sq yard if cheaper material is used to build. For example, vitrified tile flooring can be replaced with terrazzo flooring; dry distemper is used instead of washable distemper paint; granite worktops and stainless steel sinks in the kitchen are replaced by Kota stone slabs and vitreous China sinks. And Kota stone is used instead of marble for living area flooring.
Not all of this is sneakily done. Some developers clearly offer consumers the no-frills option or a flat with high-end amenities. Accordingly, the price for a 1,000 sq yard apartment could vary by Rs 7 lakh.
Sunil Jindal of SVP Builders in Ghaziabad says, “Now, builders are entirely focusing on people who want to spend Rs 15-25 lakh for a single unit.’’ Jindal’s company launched a housing project in Ghaziabad some years ago, to sell each unit for Rs 25 to 35 lakh. But their new high-rise project, which Jindal says is “on adjacent land, with the same amount of green space", offers a flat at just about Rs 20 lakh.
Accordingly, DLF has launched a long-delayed residential project near Hyderabad with prices slashed by 30%. It has also cut prices by 20-30% at ongoing projects in Chennai and Bangalore.
Jindal says profit margins have been slashed. But so has floor space area — from 1,300-1,600 sq ft to 900-1,000 sq ft. No frills, less room — but is anyone complaining?

[s1joshi]

Now that majority of towers have made good progress, Did anyone has chance to have an inside view of their apartment.. ?

RPS already has huge wastage area percentage.. In 2+1 it was coming close to 30% already... Hope we are getting things as per specs.

Regards
Seema

[webmaster]

Last time when we visited the site in Feb 09, we were only allowed to see the towers from outside, going inside the towers were not allowed citing safety reasons.

Yes, the 2+1 towers have approx 30% wastage area.

[tarun1305]

Hi Jayanta,

When u say 2+1 appartment had 30% wastage area. What does that mean actually.

Tarun

[ddamitav]

Hello,

I did a calulation of Super area vis a vis carpet area before going ahead with RPS. The calclation sheet for 2+1 (1303) is attached for your referenc.

Since attachment in .xls is not allowed I am pasting it in a word doc and attaching

Regards

Amitav

[webmaster]

Hello,

I did a calulation of Super area vis a vis carpet area before going ahead with RPS. The calclation sheet for 2+1 (1303) is attached for your referenc.

Since attachment in .xls is not allowed I am pasting it in a word doc and attaching

Regards

Amitav

Hi Amitav,

Thanks for sharing the information.

BTW I have also made the changes to allow .xls files as attachment.