Ravi Padmanabhan (padmania@gmail.com)
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Chennai: Builders are leaving no stone unturned to lure back buyers for their residential projects, especially those in the suburban areas. Stretches like the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) in Chennai boast of a large number of unoccupied flats, and developers are hoping that initiatives such as bulk bookings by corporate employees would change their fortunes.
“The OMR is increasingly becoming an important commercial hub. People working here are looking to buy homes closer to the workplace. They want to walk to work now,” says Anand Jain, MD of Hallmark Infrastructure. Jain’s company has two housing projects under way in Maraimalai Nagar, with prices upwards of Rs 10 lakh per flat. Hallmark is in talks with several corporate players. “We are giving 10% to 15% discount on bookings done by corporate firms,” says Jain.
Similarly, Vijay Shanthi Builders is also taking the corporate route to sell their project in the OMR. “We have got a few enquiries from corporate firms. We won’t be giving a discount in booking, but we would definitely cater to other requirements, like employees from one company would get flats in a single block,” says Suresh Kumar, MD of Vijay Shanthi.
Home booking has seen some activity in the last couple of month, and with the RBI cutting policy rates and the fiscal year coming to an end, builders are stepping up their marketing too.
Builders are pegging affordable housing and studio apartment units (ranging between 400 and 800 square feet) as ideal for working couples. For instance, Hallmark is looking at tapping corporates in a big way for one of its OMR projects, which is mostly one and two-bedroom units with area ranging from 400 sq ft to 760 sq ft. DLF has also given presentations to corporate companies for a project in the OMR.
This project has run into trouble after some buyers demanded their initial deposit back. “But we haven’t embarked on any major exercise with corporates yet,” says P Ravindra Kumar of DLF Southern Homes.
Interestingly, it’s not just the private sector employees who are being wooed. With the global slowdown, the focus is back on government employees. “Recently, government employees have got a pay hike and many of them are looking at investing in a home,” says an official of BSNL’s regional telecom training centre, Maraimalai Nagar. The PSU company is in talks with Hallmark for housing options for its employees.
Nevertheless, bulk booking isn’t as easy as it sounds. “Unlike individual bookings, corporate bookings take some time to materialise. That is because many companies have their own internal procedures in this respect,” says Kumar of DLF.
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