DLF Garden City Chennai

DLF, pioneers in building India’s finest townships & infrastructure, presents DLF Garden City. DLF Garden City Chennai is a premium residential estate with an appealing Spanish style of architecture against a backdrop of fabulous gardens. The DLF Garden City Chennai is an exclusively designed township spread across 53.5 acres with large open spaces. DLF Garden City offer 2 and 3 bedroom apartments in various configurations and sizes ranging from 1129 sq. ft to 1838 sq. ft scheduled to be completed by 2011.

This signatured evelopment is brought to Chennai by DLF Homes, pioneers in building India’s finest residential enclaves and urban infrastructure. DLF Garden city comprises six unique blocks, each planned around an exclusive green space. DLF Garden city is located off the prestigious 6 lane IT Corridor  also called Old Mahabalipuram Road. DLF Garden city Chennai is accessible by a 60 feet road leading 2 km west from the OMR. This premium township will have access to the proposed Siruseri Airport Road, allowing faster access to the airport.

An exclusively designed club house with an area of about 1,30,000 Sq.ft with the following facilities:

• Gents and Ladies Spa with steam, sauna, jacuzzi, massage, locker room & change room facilities
• Creche with separate children’s toilet
• Children’s Play Area
• Watch the children splash in the kid’s pool
• Library/ Business Centre
• Exclusive basement parking for club members
• Multicuisine Restaurant
• Bar
• Squash Courts, Tennis Court, Badminton Courts, Card room, Table Tennis & Billiards room
• Master & Paddle Swimming Pools
• Gymnasium, Aerobics, Yoga
• Banquet hall, Guest Rooms, Meeting Rooms, Computer / Internet Room

Gardencity offers not only superbly designed high rise apartments, but also Chennai’s finest School, Club, Shopping Centre and Healthcare facilities, all within the township. Sprawled across 53.5 acres with large open spaces, Gardencity is like a breath of fresh air. DLF Garden City Chennai offers unparalleled lifestyle privileges such as having the prestigious PSBB Millennium school, Chennai’s finest club, excellent shopping centre and healthcare facilities, all with in the township. Gardencity offers convenience shopping & services, covering everything from your daily needs, to banking facilities, beauty treatments, and even a Healthcare Centre on stand by.

Location:

DLF Garden City Chennai
IT Corridor,Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), Chennai

Chennai Corporation to revise property tax

Property tax is the main source of income for the corporation, contributing Rs 365 crore in the last fiscal out of the total income of Rs 489 crore. Over 70 tax assessors of the Chennai Corporation have embarked on an exercise to identify commercial use of residential space and revise property tax, if required. If the corporation has its way, it could well be richer by a few tens of crores at the end of the drive. The drive follows large-scale complaints that people are conducting commercial activities from properties designated to be residential, and are paying only the low residential property tax.

More than 70 tax assessors have fanned out across the Kilpauk zone comprising Anna Nagar, Shenoy Nagar, Purasawalkam, Kilpauk, Aminjikarai, parts of Koyambedu, Virugambakkam, Nungambakkam and Villivakkam. There are 21,000 listed commercial properties in the Kilpauk zone and several hundreds more that are not accounted for, sources said. The mixed residential zone has been invariably exploited, with individual bungalows being transformed into malls and restaurants, especially in Shanthi Colony, Purasawalkam and Anna Nagar.

“We’ve taken up the survey in the Kilpauk zone, and it will be extended to other zones, including T Nagar and Saidapet, in the coming weeks,” said corporation revenue officer B Ramanathan.If the corporation has its way, for instance, a landlord in Anna Nagar East who owns a twofloor building with a built-up area of 1,000 sqft each, will now have to shell out Rs 8,100 towards commercial use of the ground floor. He can no longer pay just Rs 1,687.50 for each floor under the residential slab. The basic rate of property tax in Anna Nagar East is Rs 1.25 per sqft for residential and Rs 6 for commercial properties.

Sources said many property owners were misusing the rebate of 25% guaranteed by the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919, for owner-occupied buildings. Tax assessors are made to believe that the tenants are relatives and the dwelling units are not rented out. Lack of assessors in the city municipal limits is, meanwhile, hampering assessment.

Oragadam is growing rapidly

Oragadam is a town and industrial area located on the outskirts of Chennai, India.The town is known for its various industries and workshops pertaining to the automobile sector. Oragadam, centrally located between Grand Southern Trunk and NH4, has been touted as Chennai’s largest and most developed industrial belt. The State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) is spread over 347 acres in Oragadam and houses a number of industrial units and intends to expand in order to accommodate more industries and residential complexes.

Real estate development in the city has been witness to several transformations over the past four to five years. While in certain areas residential development was a defining factor for industrial growth, in others, commercial and industrial growth have paved the way for improved infrastructure and connectivity. Oragadam has been touted as Chennai’s largest and most developed industrial belt. With over 22 Fortune 500 companies (of which six are global car manufacturers), the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam belt has seen tremendous industrial growth, in less than four years. The area is well-connected via road and rail and according to industrial experts, the presence of automobile giants like Renault-Nissan and Ford has triggered growth in and around Oragadam. In addition, JCBL Ltd, Essar Steel, BPCL, Delphi TVS Diesel Systems Ltd, GE Bayer and Silicons (India) Pvt Ltd have set up offices at SIPCOT Industrial Park.

MRJ Premnath, General Manager, SIPCOT, says, “We have more than 10,000 employees, most of who commute to and from their homes in the city by company buses. It is high time that there are apartments or villas built in Oragadam, so that people do not have to spend two hours traveling.”

Devendar Singh, Deputy Manager, Motherson Group of Companies, GST Road, is quick to agree. “For me,” he says, “traveling from GST Road to the city is a nightmare. I recently bought an apartment in Oragadam (in Temple Green, an Arun Excello project). In fact, nearly half the project is occupied by employees from my company. Living so close to work will cut down on travel time and reduce additional expenditure incurred by companies when providing transportation. We want more such projects in this part of the city, as it will benefit thousands of employees working in and around Oragadam.”

Kiran Chandan, Deputy Manager, Renault-Nissan, says, “Despite working at Renault-Nissan, whose offices are in the Oragadam area, my wife and I moved from Tambaram to Kodambakkam. We did so, largely, because my wife works in Nungambakkam and commuting, for her, would have been difficult.” Kiran adds that commuting, for him, is quite a problem now. He continues, “We have been looking, for some time, for an opportunity to move closer to Oragadam. Our budget, currently, is about Rs35 lakhs. So far, we haven’t really found anything.”

Oragadam, the industrial hub on the outskirts, is growing rapidly. Oragadam used to be a sleepy little village even about three years ago. However, when SIPCOT was set up in 2007, the area underwent a sea change. The resultant flood of working professionals and their family, complete with residential and shopping demands had, and still has, the potential to wake the sleeping giant of urban development in the area.

Courtesy: Time Property Chennai

Kathipara Flyover hot destination for Residential Properties

The Kathipara Junction, the gateway to South Chennai, was a traffic bottleneck two years ago. In 2008, grade separator came up connects important areas in the city. The six-lane clovershaped Kathipara Grade Separator connects important areas in the city like the Airport, Guindy, GST Road, Vadapalani and Poonamallee. Kathipara Flyover came as a boon to commuters as the travel time reduced drastically.

The Kathipara flyover Guindy-Chennai, reduced the travel time drastically, enabling free movement of traffic across the junction. In turn, the connectivity in these areas and even beyond, like Porur, all the way upto Sriperumbudur has improved, making it the next hot destination for the middle-income group to buy apartments. This infrastructural growth in turn, triggered the real estate market, as with the arrival of the grade separator, land value of residential properties went up by 10% (approximately).

Ramesh Nair, Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj – Chennai, points out, “The city-centre has been gradually shifting. While at one point, areas like Nungambakkam, Anna Flyover and Adyar were the central areas in the city, Kathipara has now become the city-centre. In 2008, because of the economic downturn, real estate was at an all-time low in these areas and the demand reduced by 20%. But now the demand has increased and areas like GST Road, Porur and Nanganallur, are considered as potential hubs for housing by real estate developers.”  Ajit Chordia, Managing Director, Olympia Tech Park, Guindy, says, “The Kathipara grade separator was a result of the growth and expansion of the city. Several hotels and IT Parks including the Olympia Tech Park were developed in and around the Kathipara Junction between 2005 and 2008 which resulted in traffic bottlenecks. To sustain an enormous development like this, a well-defined infrastructure like the flyover was the need of the hour.”

Commercial project in the area such as Vishranthi has an IT Park, Jayanth Techpark, spread over 3,25,000 sq ft at Porur. Yet another commercial project in the area is DLF’s IT Park, a 7.6 million sq ft project at Manapakkam (Mount Poonamallee Road). With over 40 companies, it is touted be the biggest IT Park in the country.With more and more IT companies coming up in this side of town, the demand for housing is also growing by the day.

While Porur and Nanganallur have become residential hubs, other parts of Kathipara like Ekaduthangal and Guindy are playing host to many star hotels like the Hilton, ITC Grand Chola, Grand Hyatt, etc. With the flyover, the demand for residential property has doubled and the cost of land has also gone up by 15% to 20% in surrounding areas like Guindy and Ashok Nagar. Since there is a smooth flow of traffic around the flyover, people don’t mind buying houses here as they can commute to any part of the city in less than 30 minutes.

Infrastructure development is the key driver of economic growth in India. Whether real estate development precedes infrastructure growth or infrastructure defines property development in an area is still debatable. But Kathipara Flyover is a boon to commuters as the travel time reduced drastically. Since there is a smooth flow of traffic and commuting to any part of the city is easy, the demand for residential property has doubled.

Green Signal for widening of Arcot Road

Arcot Road (NSK Salai) between Doraiswamy Street and Pillaiyar Koil Street, which has remained a bottleneck for long got green signal to widen the road to avoid traffic jams. “There has been a huge demand to widen the stretch, especially near Doraiswamy Street, where the road is very narrow. This results in congestion along Kodambakkam High Road,” Mayor M Subramanian said. The plan is to widen the road by 1.5 metres for a length of 120 metres.

The elected council of the Chennai Corporation on Monday gave the goahead for widening of Arcot Road. The council also approved IVRCL Infrastructures and Projects Ltd, the contract firm identified for the construction of flyover at Mint Junction in Tondiarpet.  The project costing Rs 19.04 crore will be executed in 18 months. This will help speedy construction of the flyover, or else the shifting of lines by other government agencies, including TNEB, will prolong the project. Metrowater will give away construction materials to the contractor who will bring in his labourers to execute the shifting work. The contractor has to keep the Metro Rail alignment in mind and prepare his designs, officials said.

Earlier, BSP floor leader V Prabhu complained that Metrowater staff were not responding properly to complaints of clogged sewers. The member alleged that despite making repeated calls to officials for more than a month, none of them took action to cleare the lines in Pulianthope.

“MLA local area development funds to the tune of Rs 80 lakh remain unused for more than four years” MLA S V Shekher said. Participating in the zero hour debate, Mylapore MLA S V Shekher said the sum was allocated for setting up a gasifier crematorium in Kailasapuram burial ground. Shekher drew the attention of the council to check the wall graffiti menace in Mylapore, which had given prominence to local councillors. The corporation’s move to concretise the roads in slums also came under flak. PMK councillor Elumalai said this was of no use, as several agencies, including TNEB and Metrowater, often damage roads in the name of repairing cables and water and sewer lines.

Source: Times of India

Chennai Residential Rentals increasing with growing demand

Schools and classes are closed for summer vacations and families planning to shift houses to reach school and work easily. “The well established areas of Egmore, Nungambakkam, Adyar in the heart of the city are ‘very hot.’ The demand for localities in Adyar and Besant Nagar is really strong. In the outskirts such as Velachery and Thiruvanmiyur to the south demand is also picking up” says Mr Abdur Ravoof, President, Chennai Real Estate Agents Association.People prefer apartments to individual houses as life in an apartment block is considered to be relatively hassle-free as the daily chores such as maintenance are taken care of by managers.

Typically, the demand is for a 2-BHK unit with basic facilities such as car park, lift and good location. A 10-15 year old apartment of this type fetches a monthly rent of about Rs 20,000 from Rs 15,000 in localities such as Adyar and Nungambakkam, says Mr Ravoof.

Mr G. Vishwanathan, Proprietor, VA Shelters, says residential rentals are picking up, particularly in the middle segment, up to about Rs 15,000-20,000 a month. But the volume of business is slow. People start shifting from March onwards and the season ends by the first week of June.

The high-end segment, typically the corporate segment that pays over Rs 40,000 a month, is still cautious and is looking to economise. They are looking at cutting down on budgets and are moving to Rs 25,000-30,000 a month units. Mr S.R. Sivakumar, a freelancer in real-estate transactions, says the residential rentals are relatively stable to the west of Chennai, in localites such as Valsarawakkam where a 2-BHK units fetches around Rs 15,000 rents a month.

• Source: The Hindu

Hand held billing equipment to get property tax receipts at your doorstep

Chennai corporation is said to be the first in the country to distribute hand-held billing equipment to assist workers engaged in door-to-door collection of property taxes in the city.The 300 hand-held equipment purchased at a cost of Rs 94 lakh will functions like a computer, and is connected to the main server, which contains the complete database of property tax payment.

Chennai Mayor M Subramaniam on Tuesday distributed hand-held billing equipment to assist workers engaged in door-to-door collection of property taxes in the city. For the current year, a target of collecting property taxes worth Rs 350 crore had been set, and with one month left for collection, the officials in the revenue department have already collected Rs 301 crore, he noted.  A proposal to provide incentives to those who achieve beyond their set target of collecting property taxes was also being considered, he explained.

“All information about their tax payment and dues can be provided to the assessees, and they will be allowed to pay the current year’s tax dues only after paying the arrear amounts. This will help regularize the receipt of property tax for the corporation”  said Rajesh Lakhoni, Corporation Commissioner.

The equipment functions like a computer and generate receipt immediately on payment of tax. An IVRS (Interactive Voice Responsive System) for streamlining property tax payment queries was also introduced in the corporation helpline 1913.

Reference:

expressbuzz.com

Trend of retirement communities slowly catching up in India

Senior citizen homes are fast gaining traction among those who desire an independent lifestyle away from the humdrum of city life.These are becoming popular in and around cities such as Pune, Kochi, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi NCR.Retirement homes typically include enhanced features that can make living for the elderly far more secure and comfortable. In India, there are some developers who are specifically building retirement communities to cater to a select clientele.

According to global real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM), “The concept of retirement homes is an exclusive idea—such communities are developed keeping in mind certain age groups. The concept has to be designed with special facilities to make life more comfortable for senior citizens.” Ashiana Housing, for instance, has retirement resorts in Bhiwadi, Jaipur and Pune. The price varies from location to location. While in Jaipur, it starts at Rs 11.8 lakh, properties in Bhiwadi are priced from Rs 17.4 lakh onwards. Projects such as Classic Kudumbam and Melur Meadows in Chennai, Athashri and Golden Nest Senior Commune in Pune cater to senior housing projects.

Reference:

The Economic Times

List of property tax defaulters to go online in a week

Chennai corporation plans to upload the list of property tax defaulters in a week. Chennai property owners can now check their status online and pay arrears.The corporation will soon issue notice to all defaulting property owners.

The corporation recently uploaded a list of 175 defaulters on http://www.chennaicorporation.gov.in and plans to upload the complete list of 8,600 property tax defaulters, involving arrears of over Rs 1 lakh, in a week. Officials said defaulters, including LIC, Pachiappa’s Trust and IOC, have begun paying up.

“We are publishing the list online so that property owners can know their status and pay arrears. The defaulters owe Rs 150 crore. We got Rs 206 crore towards property tax, Rs 20 crore more than the corresponding period in last year. Defaulters handed over post-dated cheques worth Rs 20 crore.We are issuing notices to all defaulters,” said corporation commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni. Property owners can check their status visiting www.chennaicorporation.gov.in and pay arrears. Chennai Corporation will upload the complete list in a week.

Check Online whether the Plots you buy are approved

The property buyers in chennai can make use of the online facility and check whether the plots they buy are approved. At the moment, layouts approved during January 2000 to September 2009 are available and would be updated regularly.

The CMDA also commenced the process of computerization of layout preparation in the Chennai Metropolitan Area this month. Around 15 layouts are being prepared every month. The number of days taken for layout approval will be reduced to two days against the ten days taken earlier.

A total of 45 layouts have been approved by the CMDA this year. Details of approval of 31 layouts in 2008, 64 in 2007, 139 in 2006, 121 in 2005, 143 in 2004, 142 in 2003, 83 in 2002, 82 in 2001 and 102 in 2000 are available online.

The details of the approved layout roads available for the lands around the layouts and the availability of public purpose sites, parks and playgrounds would be available online. However, the users feel that this online facility would be better used if information regarding infrastructure development such as roads, street lights, drainage and storm water drain in the approved areas are also available online.

The approved layout plans within Chennai Metropolitan Area are published on the official website of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) http://www.cmdachennai.gov.in/approved_layout.html