BDA to give residential projects another shot

Nov 30,2017 / By Priyanka / No Comment

The Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) has taken a turnaround from its earlier standpoint that it would not take up any new residential projects till all its current flats get homebuyers. Recently, BDA has gone ahead with floating proposals for two mega residential projects worth Rs 759 crore. The projects will come up at Konadasapura village in Bidarahalli Hobli in Bengaluru

The project will have more of 3BHK options as most buyers are seen to prefer this over 2BHK or 1BHK flats in its previous projects. The upcoming project will have 1,344 flats (3-BHK – carpet area of 1,150 square feet), 672 (2-BHK carpet area of 672 square feet) and 448 (1-BHK carpet area of 450 square feet). They are going to construct a total of 22 blocks, each of 14 floors.

A senior official of the BDA said, “We believe it to get a good response as it is located in the suburbs. This residential project is a part of many other property development projects, comprising of commercial complexes, amusement parks, and others.”

He further added that the BDA decided to take up the project to achieve revenue as it is facing a serious financial crunch. The BDA is anticipating on accepting business models that private builders use. The official said this is the first big residential project that the BDA is taking up after the Karnataka Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) came into effect.

The BDA is trying hard to sell the flats that are already completed. The agency had to announce schemes like ‘across-the-table’ sale of flats for applicants because of the poor response from the public. The official said that after the initiative, 500-odd flats were sold, but a majority of the 2-BHK flats left unsold.

Last year, the BDA had marketed 3,100 flats for sale but received only 800-odd applications. The homebuyers had shown more interest in 3-BHK flats. Another BDA official said, “Our earlier experience tells us, there is more demand for 3-BHK flats so we have decided to build more of them. The project will also address various other issues like parking. In one of the projects, parking lots will be made available for more than 1,500 cars. We are hoping that people working in the IT sector may be interested in the project location is close to Whitefield.”

Peripheral roads will be constructed around the housing project borderline of 24-m width. Facility for solid waste management and other facilities has been made.

Buying property Real Estate Tips

Guidelines to distinguish between a good floor plan and a bad floor plan

Nov 29,2017 / By Priyanka / No Comment

There are many ways to judge while buying a property when it is mainly for the end-use purpose. One of such things is the floor plan. There are various things and components that contribute to making a good floor plan.
Here are few guidelines to distinguish between a good floor plan and a bad floor plan and how you can classify these:

View
For a pleasing view of the home, keep the kitchenette away from the entrance. The visitors should have a vision of the living room interiors and there should not be any obstruction in the inside view.

Common area
Space used by huge cupboards, big doorways are a waste and are of little use in average-sized apartments. Rather, go for built-in furniture such as convertible sofas, shelves, desks or tables that can also be used as iron table etc.

Room size
Choose a rectangular room over a square one. A good floor plan is the one that has a room of at least 12 ft long and 10 feet in width.

This means that in India the typical size of the bed is about 7-9 ft in length. The extra 5 ft space should be left for free movement in the room as well as placement of other things.

If you are thinking of a master bedroom, space should be at least 7-10 ft along with a master bathroom and a walk-in closet.

Loading
Homebuyers should make sure that the loading area should not be more than 30 percent and less than 25 percent as the common area spaces get compact.

The variance between carpet area and the super area is known as loading and is generally 30 percent of the total floor plan area.

Furniture
Any furniture in the residential space is kept at least 3 feet away from the wall. Make sure that there is enough space for placing furniture at different angles to avoid overcrowding.

Kitchen
A good floor plan provides an open kitchen as it offers easy access to other parts of the house and makes the common area appear large.

Make sure the kitchen and dining area are side by side as these are the most used areas of the home and should have a suitable access.

Bathrooms
This factor totally depends on the homebuyers’ necessities. Generally, a 1BHK has 1 attached bathroom while a 2BHK flat might have two, one attached to the room and the other one with the hall.

For a 3BHK flat, the third bathroom can be replaced as a storeroom, if you have a small family. It is suggested to keep the common area bathroom functional for guests.

Balconies
The area used for building the balconies is not calculated in the Floor Space Index (FSI). However, real estate developers add this in the carpet area to manage the loading.

Therefore, go for a larger balcony rather than several small balconies to make sure healthy ventilation.

BMC to form a new cell for monitoring 30 years old buildings in Mumbai

Nov 28,2017 / By Priyanka / No Comment

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon form a new cell for auditing neglected buildings which are under its jurisdiction. The new cell will recognize structures that are older than 30 years and will issue notices to the concerned societies for further structural audits.

As per the new policy, the municipal corporation has made it necessary for the dweller or owner to give in the structural inspection of the building.

The policy will be uploaded on the BMC website in December to encourage suggestions and objections from general public.
Initially, the civic body had only one committee to take care of the issues associated with the neglected buildings but now BMC has formed a total five committees to deal with appeals related to such buildings.

Out of five committees, four will make available for appeals related to private buildings and one for municipal buildings. Recently, the policy received a green signal and will be applied to ensure speedy recovery of ramshackle buildings and evade building collapses in future.

The policy makes it necessary for the occupants to inform the civic building and factory department about the status of structure. The policy is only valid for private and municipal buildings which are under the civic body’s jurisdiction. BMC has made it compulsory to get the structural audit done by registered a BMC structural engineer.

If a building certified as non-dilapidated collapses in future then registration of that specific engineer who certified the building will be void and the BMC will initiate legal process against the person for the same.

Once a structure receives notice from the civic body then it is the owners/tenants’ concern to submit the structural audit to BMC within a month’s time. BMC will later scrutinize the status and select the category of the structure.

Will PRR happen or it’s a distant dream?

Nov 25,2017 / By Priyanka / No Comment

At this point in time, Bengaluru city is extremely overcrowded with congested road corridors and vehicular pollution. The Outer Ring Road (ORR), Bengaluru is one of the most affected roads, as it is used by the daily travelers from Doddaballapur Road, Bellary Road, Old Madras Road, Sarjapur Rd and NICE Ring Road (NRR) for their individual job locations in and around Bengaluru city. To ease the traffic movement on ORR, concerned authorities of the state has proposed the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR)

R Roshan Baig, Urban development minister, who is also the minister in charge of KUIDFC, said it was long-awaited project was executed and expected it will pick up in the coming days.

The PRR will connect four highways -Tumakuru Road, Ballari Road, Old Madras Road, and Hosur Road. The road will create smooth connectivity with Kanakapura Road and Mysuru Road, two other main highways linking to Tamil Nadu and Kerala

Central Government is discovering the PRR project. According to sources, the total project cost is estimated to be around Rs. 41,000 Crore. Once the project starts will take 36-40 months to complete the same as per information.

The project was first recommended in 2005. Issues which kept the project on hold so far are as follows the acquisition of land belonging to farmers, litigation, and the dearth of funds with Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). Later, a series of protests for reimbursement from the farmers whose lands were marked for acquisition kept the project at a standstill till now.

The project is now included under Bharat Mala Pariyojna. This is a project which was formed in order to develop the connectivity in the country through roads & highways along coastal areas, borders, tourist destinations, places of religious importance & district headquarters.

For the PRR, an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) has been formed together by BDA and KUIDFC (Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation) in order to raise finances and add further momentum to the project.

Moreover, the capital risk is partially shared by the government which will draw a number of bidders for this particular project. The Government is thinking of hybrid annuity based PPP model. Here, the developer bears 60 % of the project cost while the rest would be borne by the Centre.

Centre to construct 50 lakh homes in rural areas under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin

Nov 24,2017 / By Priyanka / No Comment

Recently, the government said that more than 50 lakh homes will be built in rural areas across the country for the poor by March 31 under a central scheme bringing social transformation in villages.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin PMAY (G) a target to construct one crore new houses by March 31, 2019, was set. Of these, 51 lakh houses had to be completed by 31st March 2018, the rural development ministry said in an official statement.

The rural development ministry said in an official statement that under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) a target to build one crore new houses by March 31, 2019, was set. Out of which, 51 lakh houses had to be completed by 31st March 2018.

After the launch in 2016, it took some time to complete the process of beneficiary registration, geo-tagging, account verification etc. Adding to it, the ministry said that it used Socio Economic Census of 2011 for selection of beneficiaries.

The homeless and those living in one kuccha room or two kuccha room with kuccha roof are the beneficiaries of this pro-poor PMAY scheme.

The ministry said that the homes are planned by the best of institutions after studying the current local design configurations and are constructed by beneficiaries as per their need. The expense for construction of the houses is directly transferred into the accounts of beneficiaries.

The poor are getting safe homes and can live with self-esteem with facilities like toilet, drinking water facility, electricity connection, LPG connection etc

To have transparency and corruption check, the Centre has set up an online policy where any person can see the building of homes with geo-tagged photographs and complete details of beneficiaries and expenses made to them.

The ministry has also decided to assign a study on social transformation to understand the impact of the housing programme.

Besides this, the National Institute of Public Finance & Policy will also study the governance reforms under PMAY (G) and the influence of higher demand for steel and cement on growth.