Home, cheap home

From a distant suburb of Chennai offering plotted developments and residential projects for those who cannot afford to invest closer to the city, the Sriperumbudur and Oragadam industrial belts have evolved into self-contained real estate markets thanks to the large number of factories and well-developed infrastructure available here, say developers.

Locations in a radius of 10-15 km from the industrial zone are now prime areas for realty development. Of course, the overall market scenario has an impact on the volume of sales but still, the region is an established market with a huge catchment, catering mostly to blue-collar workers and those in the middle-income group with houses ranging from about ₹10 lakh to ₹45-50 lakh.

Large township projects have already come up in Oragadam, Padappai, Sriperumbudur and more are planned. Plotted developments are also gaining traction. Factories here are keen on helping their employees buy houses in the vicinity since this will slice the costs incurred in transporting workers in company buses from places 50-60 km from the factory, where many workers now live.

W Mathews, Director (Sales), TVH, says the company was among the earliest to launch a township, called TVH Svaya, offering apartments priced at about ₹12 lakh to ₹23 lakh. Investors in the project saw a demand for rental space as companies needed to accommodate staff involved in the early stages of setting up a factory. With a large number of colleges being built in the suburbs, students too, they expected, would need rental homes. TVH later launched Svaya Gold with houses at a higher price tag of about ₹30 lakh.

Pon Ravichandran, Director, Green Tree Homes and Ventures, says the Sriperumbudur belt is a prime location for affordable housing projects, offering houses of around 600 sq. ft. for about ₹20 lakh.

With land prices cheaper than in Chennai, it is still possible to buy an independent or semi-independent house here with a small plot of land and an exclusive terrace space for about ₹20-25 lakh.

The company’s 47-acre project on the Sriperumbudur–Thiruvallur State Highway is seeing sustained sales. In the initial two phases, the company sold about 500 apartments of the 700 launched.

P Suresh, Managing Director, Arun Excello, says houses priced at around ₹10-15 lakh and catering to families with a combined income of about ₹1-1.5 lakh a month see sustained demand.

With large multinational companies coming up in the Sriperumbudur industrial belt, there is keen demand for low-priced homes. This has led Arun Excello to offer what it calls ‘compact homes’ — basic, no-frills apartments — to cater to this segment.