CHENNAI HAS SEEN, OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, A
SPURT OF DEVELOPMENT, BOTH INDUSTRIAL AND
RESIDENTIAL, IN CERTAIN SUBURBAN LOCALITIES.
THESE DEVELOPMENTS HAVE BEEN DRIVEN BY BOTH THE
FACT THAT FURTHER EXPANSION WITHIN THE CITY
LIMITS HAS BECOME QUITE IMPOSSIBLE AND THE FACT
THAT THE LEVELS OF BUSINESS INVESTMENT HAVE
ENFORCED A CERTAIN SENSE OF DEMAND FOR LAND IN
THE AREA. S CHANDRASHEKAR HAS MORE…
There is, one must admit, a certain sense of inevitability about the way in which the
city has grown. The pressure of an almost unstoppable increase in population over the
past few years, coupled with the lack of space to expand into, at least, within the city's
more developed areas, has translated into something of a scrabble for land to develop
and convert into either residential or commercial sections, on what were formerly the
outskirts of the city.
These localities, which are now the subject of interest from a range of real estate
developers and land promoters, both large and small, include almost every area beyond
the newly prescribed administrative limits of Chennai City; the primary focus, however,
courtesy the growth of industrial and business hubs along the Grand Southern Trunk
(GST) Road, is in areas like Guduvancheri, Sriperumbudur, Chengalpattu, Oragadam and
Kanchipuram.
Of the areas listed above, places like Oragadam and Sriperumbudur have received
special attention, largely because of the large-scale investment that international
companies like Nissan-Renault, Komatsu India Pvt Ltd, Nokia and Hyundai, to list just a
few examples, have made in the area. S Mohan, Managing Director, Wisdom Properties
Pvt Ltd, is quite certain that this stretch of land, from Tambaram and Sriperumbudur
down to Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu (see attached map) is the next big thing, as far
as real estate promotion in the city is concerned. He begins, "We have been in the
business of real estate for more than a decade now. Ten years ago, one ground (2,400
sq ft) in Urapakkam would have cost Rs1 lakh; today, that same plot of land costs
approximately Rs25 lakhs. Over the last ten years, we have progressively shifted our
focus out from Vandalur to Chengalpattu and now to Kanchipuram."
Aniruddha Joshi, Executive Director, Hirco Group, which is in the process of
constructing a large residential campus in Oragadam, adds, "We conducted quite an
extensive survey and the results were interesting. The results indicated that there is
increasing awareness about lifestyle options, across all economic classes and sections;
people are becoming very conscious about the quality of their residential lives. It's not
just the upper-class or the elites who're making these decisions. Even the middle-class,
in any city for that matter, is starting to think about where they're living… This is where
places like Sriperumbudur, Kanchipuram and Oragadam come into the picture."
Connectivity to different areas of any city (Chennai, in this case) is the central theme
around which any sort of spatial development can usually occur. After all, from a
residential point of view, there really is no point in making one's home 25kms from the
city, if access to essential resources like shopping, entertainment and healthcare,
amongst others, is a long and tiresome process; unless, of course, these are immediately available in the area of residence.
S Padmanabhan, Business - Development in-charge, Sri Bhagya Homes, which
promotes land from Tamabram up to Tindivanam, adds, "Customers only want to buy
land (or apartments) if they are assured that the plot is close to some settlement, even if
it is only a village. Previously, people would have been content with trusting a
developer's word as to the facilities on offer. Today, however, they make several visits to
be absolutely sure of what they're getting. One reason why this is happening is because a
large percentage of people, at least 50 percent, are buying property as an investment
option. In fact, a number of Sriperumbudur and Oragadam clients come from
Kanchipuram rather than Chennai."
Developers and customers, like Varadan Devanathan, a senior management executive
employed at an international corporate organisation, confirm that the purchase of land
and/or houses and apartments is a business decision that revolves around the increasing
investment by automobile manufacturers and other companies in, for example,
Oragadam. Varadan adds, "I was born in Chennai and lived inside the city till the end of
2006. Chennai is my home base and real estate is an important part of my investment
portfolio. Considering the growth of suburban Chennai, with many manufacturing
industries setting up shop, I decided that it would be a good idea to invest in suburban
Chennai (I have bought land in Oragadam; I paid, approximately Rs1.8lakhs), which
includes areas like Kanchipuram, Sriperumbudur, Orgadam and Padappai, apart from
places like Maraimalai Nagar and Chengalpattu."
Padmanabhan, of Sri Bhagya Homes, makes a rather interesting observation, though.
He says, "We have plots for sale in both Sriperumbudur and Kanchipuram. While this is
not a totalitarian statement, by and large, plots in Kanchipuram are usually bought solely
for residential purposes. Those in and around Sriperumbudur, on the other hand, are
rarely bought for investment purposes; these are purchased by people who are working
at nearby companies. For example, 50 members of the staff at Hyundai's manufacturing
plant have bought land and built their houses in the immediate area."
N Ramesh, who heads HDFC Bank’s operations in Andhra Pradesh, has also purchased
land in the area. His purchase, in Kanchipuram, is driven by slightly different motives.
Both Ramesh and S Mohan agree that the
consumption of real estate in Kanchipuram revolves around the fact that it is, compared
to places like Sriperumbudur and Oragadam, it is a significantly more developed urban
centre. Ramesh says, "Kanchipuram is a major town and provides its residents with
almost as many shopping and entertainment options as Chennai does. In fact, the profile
of people residing there is surprisingly high."
Mohan concludes, "Residents, in and around a fourkilometre radius of Kanchipuram
town, can access Chennai within an hour or a hour-and-a-half, thanks to excellent roads
and the fact that city buses now ply on that route. Connectivity is really no longer an
issue."
