Prestige Parkview

Hi All,

Prestige group has officially launched the "Prestige Parkview" project. SOme of the salient features:-

Location
Its very near to the IT hotbed of ITPL/Whitefield. Basically its as the cross-road where the Whitefield raod (coming from Forum Value Mall) meets with the ITPL road @ Hope Farm Circle. Location is really good.

Price: Flat price is around 50L+ for 2 BHK flats with an approx per sq feet rate of 3650/-. I won't call it pricey because you'll get a flat from any other tier 2 builder around whitefield/ITPL for 3000+ (check out sterling Shalom, Spectra Cypress, Keerthi Gardenia - nothing would be around 3000/sq ft)

Number of flats:- The number of flats is around 240. So its not going to be a concrete jungle like some HUGE projects

Floor Plan: I liked the floor plans also, since each of the bed rooms have windows which get you essential ventilation & lighting. Secondly, a flat just shares only 1 wall with another flat, which means that you've ample open space on the sides for windows, balconies etc

My views, pls feel free to comment

Prestige Tranquility Review

We have recently bought a flat near ITPL but that did not stop us from visiting "Prestige Tranquility". Thought of buying a flat at "Prestige", even a 1 BHK was a good thought & felt like good investment also. So we happened to visit the site this Saturday, 30 July.


PROS:

1. Its a big builder and construction quality and all can be expected to be good.
2. There is always a brand name associated with big builders which can be considered a status symbol.
3. Specifics: Architecture wise, what all I can say is that I have seen the plans of the flats for 1BHK, 2BHK & 3BHK. The tower construction is such that there is only 1 common wall between 2 flats whereas all other sides don't have a common wall. So, you get good air & light from outside.
4. Location: Its around 8 kms from KR Puram and another 10 kms from Whitefield (Hope Farm Junction). Both the ways there is negligible traffic & commuting by your own vehicle is easy. Its around 2.5 kms inside the National Highway
5. Availability: When we checked only flats above 10th floor were available for 1 BHK & 2 BHK
6. Whats Around: Around this place are a couple of manufacturing & other small industries. There is a residential school nearby & there are few more residential projects around - “Pruksa Silvana”, “GR Sun Villas”, “Brigade Exotica”, “Signature Dreams” and “Signature Tulips”

CONS
Now we come to most important part since its usually better to look at 'CONS' rather than 'PROS' to avoid any issues after buying flats:

1. Location: Flats are around 2.5 kms inside the national Highway, so you can't think of any kind of 'public transport' till here. There doesn't seem to be any kind of public utilities, shopping areas, malls or anything else nearby. (Since there are 2000 flats coming up, things will develop like a supermarket, 2-3 restaurants etc though but a shopping Mall!!! & other things like multi-cuisine restaurants and all, I doubt)
2. Big Builder: Its a big builder and they have a reputation for making huge projects. Prestige SHantiniketan, Whitefield had some issues. Check out below links:-
1. http://expressbuzz.com/Cities/Bangalore/another-collapse-kills-2-at-prestige-complex/25330.html
2. http://in.diarealestate.com/2008/11/prestige-shantiniketan-whitefield-tower.html
3. http://www.mybangaloreproperty.com/blogs/bangalore_real_estate/archive/2008/10/26/all-the-buzz-about-prestige-shantiniketan.aspx
3. Price: If you're buying it just because the price is right, then it might not be such a good choice. For almost the same price you can get a Tier 2 builder like Sterling, Keerthi, SPectra around Whitefield
4. Societal Issues: They have 17 towers and each tower has different set of flats e.g. 1 BHK's at fag-end, 2 BHK's on sides (different towers etc.) and its not a mix-n-match of flats in same towers. It might be good for structural & architecture ways but not societal. person staying in 1 BHK might feel like an outcast.
5. Huge Project, huge area:- Its 38 acres of land, which means for you to come to main road you have to walk till main gate. So for everything, either you have to walk a lot or bring out your vehicle.

PRICE

• Per sq Feet :- Rs 2728/sq feet
• Car park Rs. 250,000/-
• Floor rise Rs. 15/- psft for each floor
• Rs 75/- psft for premium units
• Approximate additional charges
• Bescom/ BWSSB- Rs. 100/ Sft
• Adv. Maintenance – Rs. 42/ Sft
• 1st year Sinking fund Rs. 42/ Sft
• Generator for 2 BHK- 75000/- and 3 BHK Rs. 120,000/-
• Service tax, VAT, charges payable at possession (Around 10%)
• Stamp duty, Registration charges payable at possession
• Approx Price: a 2BHK shall have a basic cost price of around 32 Lakhs (10th floor) & above that there would be 3 lakhs - other charges;
• Svc tax, VAT (10%);
• Registration shall be additional. (Approx calculations for a specific flat with area 1087 sq feet & on 10 th floor)

 Folks these are my personal views & are not meant to offend anyone. Feel free to leave comments..


Thanks for reading this.

Beginning of House Hunt @ Bangalore

Hi!
Before I Start telling about my house hunt story let me tell you a few things about Me (sorry 'US'), where we bought & the most helpful part for you...WHat we bought & what all went into making that decision.

About US:
I am working for an IT company near Domlur whereas my wife has her office near ITPL, Whitefield, Bangalore. We married recently and I shifted to Bangalore a few months back only. We stay quite close by, in AECS layout. My wife (just like most of the women) is very passionate about a HOME. SO we have been looking for flats for quite a long time. We have checked flats near Electronic city (VBHC) , Jigani (PRIDE) and couple of other places; but that was before we seriously started looking for a house. When I say seriously, that means after sorting out for the most "important" part of the source of money for down payment which is normally around 8-10 Lakhs.

So when we started looking for flats our requirement was a bit hazy. We were checking out almost anything & everything. Checked flats near Electronic city, Bannerghatta road etc which in hindsight was completely stupid (for our requirements only, not a general statement)

Beginning of House Hunt - Our 1st Finalized flat
Way it all started was that there was a poster/banner for builder apartments near our house at AECS Layout (Opp Brookefields) and we just thought of checking it. We went, talked to builder, and saw the floor plan. It was a 4 storied building with 2 flats at each floor. Flat cost was around 40L (all inclusive) (Rs 3200 / sq feet)
Location was really good as everything is within 200 metres: school, grocery stores (reliance fresh, MORE, MK Retail, Hypercity - 500 mtrs), mall (Cosmos) etc and it is already a planned development. We also checked the previous project of the builder which was pretty okay. We also talked to a person who had bought a flat there.

So we got down to arranging money and all that. My F-I-L has already told us that he'll help us with down payment. So we took his advice about the place & his line of thought was try to find something around 25L & complete the payment of flat in all cash. Take loan from friends & family & repay them later but we couldn't find anything decent enough in that much (our tastes couldn't be accommodated in 25L in Bangalore).
So we had more or less decided on it but there was a still little bit of doubt in our mind. As I am sure it must have been in your mind also when you finalize a house which is like one of the biggest investments for a person like us. So we weren't too sure with a lingering doubt.
So we requested a friend of ours to come over & check it out. He is basically an architect and bought a house some 3-4 years back near Airport. He came over & checked the place. He saw the ongoing construction, asked a few things to the builder about construction. His observation was that construction wise its ‘AVERAGE’ & not bad (OKAY for a small builder). But when he talked to builder about the property papers and booking amount, the builder told that I'll give you papers only when the cheque for booking amount of 2lakh is cleared. My friend tried to explain him that we need to get the documents verified, so it would be better if you agree with a Post-dated cheque (PDC). But the builder did not agree and was a bit rude & told, "Sir, you can buy if you trust me, else leave it". My friend found it a bit awkward & told me, "you can go ahead if you like , but I won't recommend this guy. He’s telling us to trust him & give him a booking cheque whereas he is not ready to trust us". After that we checked some other ongoing constructions & most of other builders were okay with a post-dated cheque. So we dropped the idea of that flat but he gave some vital advice to us. I will list it as follows:-

1) Try to buy a flat where you can have some kind of society. That your children (we don’t have any as of now) have some place to play & if its a big society, security is better taken care of.

2) Secondly you can take a flat in an area which is not yet completely developed but will be in next 2 years, since it will take almost that much time for flats also to be built. Why to pay premium for a location when you know that outskirts will also be developed by then.

3) Since its going to be your 1st flat, you cannot call it as an investment. Well yes, you would like to see its value appreciated but first house is for your own stay purpose... So keep that also in mind.

4) In the end, everything comes down to budget. Although we also looked at a few projects which we liked a lot but then it was going over budget by around 5-6 Lakhs & we decided against it

House Hunt : Requirements
So after that began the big hunt. We zeroed down a few parameters that we were going to stick to:-
· Budget – 40 Lakhs
· 2 BHK
· Around 1100 SQ Ft
· Should be nearby ITPL/Brookefields
· New Project (This one was added later after I’ve seen some 10-15 projects – logic I will explain later)

I browsed net for various projects in our area – AECS Layout, ITPL, Whitefield, Kundanahalli, Marathahalli, Bellandur and came up with various projects.
The area around Marathahalli towards KR Puram was ruled out since we checked a flat there earlier & there was a severe water problem in those areas. The flat we saw was a small society with around 100 flats. Not much in the name of amenities like swimming pool, children's park etc. Worst part was water charges were Rs 390 per person per house. That was like 1170, if you're a family of 3 and maintenance charges extra. (But I guess most of the projects have water shortage issues in some time to come but there were not many projects that I got towards KR Puram)

SO for next couple of days, I used to check various websites for properties in Bangalore (mostly www.HDFCRED.com ) and then used to go out of office at lunch-time & check out the projects. Normally if I went to see 1 project there would be another 3-4 nearby. I checked various projects (Keerthi Gardenia (Thubarahalli), Sterling Shalom, Rohan Jharokha, VRR Lakeview, Shanders Spring Dale, Foyer Infinity, Pebble Creek, etc. )v& would list down some of the pros & cons of each of these in my next blog.