Natarajg007

It is true that infrastructure in India does not match USA or Australia. The comparison however is that between Europe and India. We are not talking about sparsely populated area like Australia. Well as someone said in the links above a typical 3 bedroom flat in Chennai in a known area even not the hi-fi ones, like Vadapalani costs 75L to 1C. A similar area in Bangalore will cost much lesser say 35L to 50L. Reason is simple. Land price is same in both areas but FSI in chennai is low. WIth such FSI, with limited developed areas (with or without potholes) the demand for housing in Chennai will hold the prices.
NRIs tend to take a condescending look, but well 2 years ago I had a running battle with some silly NRI about a price of land in Arcot road at 1C. He felt it was too much. TOday the same land is not available for 2C. So if u wanna buy, Buy, otherwise stay in Australia with your Marsupial friends.

r2home

I'm NRI working in USA for 8 years, returning back to India next year, I have visited India almost every year during my stay in USA, so I have seen the growth.

I totally agree, it is unfair to compare the facilities in India with other developed countries, meantime I do agree there are still safety issues (example road construction site), others like robbery are due to unplanned sudden development in economical growth.

It doesnt mean that because we work overseas for extended period of time to make money (visit India every 4-5 years), during that time India will magically turn into countries like Australia, in our "absence". So when we get back to India, we can enjoy same facilites as we were overseas.

I would classify people in India, by their economical contribution,

NRI: earn enough or more white money, save around 1 lakh per month overseas, invest in India to multiply their investments.

Government: coming up with plans to meet foriegn standards in economy, boosting GDP, with some nonsense commercialised approach (for example, the advertisement boards in the highway medians for every 50ft, jeopradizing public safety).

Government Employee: earn enough or less white money, some may bribe and dont delivery quality work.

Private Companies: commercializing everything, regardless of public safety.

Private Employee: earn less or enough white money, but to cope up with daily needs.

So nobody is perfect except some. To make India better place for living, everybody should contribute in better way, first by stop cursing while staying abroad.

I have visited Chennai a month back, I was impressed with infrastructure development in suburban areas like velacherry (except the dumpyard) and OMR, hopefully other places, and building over bridges in cities and making one-way traffic at right spot.

So government is doing their job, it is public (including NRI) responsibility to follow rules maintain neat roads and facilities, for that they should be educated. Before this numerous private TV channels, there was DD channels, and they were not too commercialised, they used to bring awareness between public by slideshows. Nowadays there is no awareness at all, schools have commercialised, at home TV channels are everybody, no time to think.

Above are my personal opinion, I dont want to hurt anybody feelings.

Til

Yep I reckon it is better to buy a house in Australia where the government is trying hard for the betterment of life of people and we have medicare (free medical treatment), affordable housing ( in terms of earning here) not like India where people earn 20k per month and have 40 lakh flats (min) in remote areas. Here we can get a decent salary as well as decent house prices which are more economic than Chennai as well. And of course you cannot compare Infrastructure. I reckon only the prices crash in India it is the best time to buy houses like what happened in US now with the Credit Crunch. No offence but it is my personal feeling.

Yuvaraj

Here is my gut feeling, there are pockets in Chennai where some top politicians have huge land bank and are in collusion with the builders (mainly large flat promoters). There Large project realtors invariably launch their roadshows abroad (invariably US where India growth story blah blah sells) and then come to India with 25% of their project already sold off. I dont think there can be much disturbance in rates here unless there are some structural problems in the economy (for people with a little long term memory you can look back at the 96- mid 99 period). The impact of US recession , hike in interest rates etc may have impact in other areas which are blocked by speculators, second rung politicians, local big wigs. There could be some rejig here but no more than 15% correction from current levels but if economy turns worse (primarily Oil spikes) and US recession is worse than anticipated (> 15 months) then a further correction can be anticipated.. Chennai folks have Real Estate and Gold as primary investment avenues and there is lot of liquidity primarily from huge rents and profitable sales of earlier Real Estate investment not to mention increased salary levels and increased repatriation from US kin.

They key here is how govt. will manage the Oil deficit , already there is atleast Rs. 25 P litre on Petrol and Rs . 15 on Diesel AFTER Oil Bonds. The govt. can max wait till next election. Imagine if the govt. had hiked petrol and diesel even by Rs. 10 what will happen to the Indian economy, what about hikes of 20 or even 30 if Oil moves up.. Can the India economy sustain ? Will IT companies on city's outskirts still provide Cabs for daily commutation ?

Oil worldwide has been infiltrated heavily by fund flush funds creating a speculation premium of over $50 and this is only bound to increase...

Net Net I think though India is a growth story there are simply too many events on the downside. So its better to wait and watch from the sidelines for now untill a few months from the next general election when clear signals could be available bothways..

gurgaon_bloke

There are some related posts in the forum that address the crippling infrastructure of India, especially the Indian cities.

Where is this confused nation heading to?

Look at the rising cost of living, increased taxes and 104 % tax on cars. What are we paying these taxes for?

It's a mess everywhere. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening even more.

People are blindly running after money with little or no civic sense.

India was never meant to be like this. It has failed to come up as a sound nation.

CHAOS is the MANTRA that it runs on.

Unfortunately, we will see more and more brain drain as anyone who gets an oppurtunity to leave this country, will certainly want to leave this expensive place ASAP.

There is no concern about a better tommorrow or the future of our children.

With deepest Regret.

chennai

are real estate prices -- apartments and plots - in Chennai in for a downward price trend ?
I visited a prominent ad about a dupleix house, a few years old, on one ground plot in Pallikaranai- Manohar Nagar 5th street -- the owner was quoting 53 lakhs for it without any corporation water connection, a very long winded road - with the major bus stop the Velacery Vijay Nagar Bus stop - some 3 km away. No immediate faciltiies/ amenities in the vicinity. the house would have to be renovated --they had 8 feet by 8 feet rooms for bedrooms !

I found this quite an absurd price to quote and the owner defended it saying that the nearby Kamkoti Nagar it is 70 lakhs the asking rate.

Will someone make any analysis of the real estate trends of June- July in Chennai after the petrol price hike.
thanks

wiseman

I request all you people to please rise above your limitations and look at the bigger picture first. While India may be shining according to some, we are still a very weak economy. A few years of cost advantage, which we have squandered away by doing clerical jobs, does not make us an economic superpower - yet. At the height of our economic boom, we continue to import ever higher amounts as compared to our exports. Remember, our economic boom is entirely dependent on export-led boom. And now its coming to an end - at least for the next 4-8 years; maybe for the next generation.

Wondering why I'm not talking about RE prices in Vadapalani - or wherever? Because this whole thing is an utterly greed-led bubble due to the phenomenal stupidity of the builders, government AS WELL AS buyers. In previous generations we used to ask builders a simple question - "please explain why so much?". Is that asking too much of today's buyers - especially the youngsters? It appears so. In our days we kept our mouths shut, listened to our elders (not always wise and learnt from THEIR mistakes, unlike today. And the results show. Only the NRIs seem to be asking that question and that may be a life-saver for them!!!

Prices are insanely high in Chennai (or Gurgaon, Bangalore, Pune or wherever) - even for Manhattan levels (I should know since I have property bought by my great-grandfather in Mylapore at 3k for 9 acres 105 years ago. Even 35 years ago this land was selling only for Rs.10 per SFt. In those days Vadapalani was a village outside Madras and Chengalpet was light-years away .

And infrastructure abroad is from a different planet. Anyways, the gigantic credit bubble in the west is coming to an end - to be followed by 10-12 YEARS of severe recession, depression and general weakness. US, UK, Spain, Australia, Ireland and maybe the whole of EU are almost definitely headed into the most severe recession seen since your great-grandfather's time (They probably were not affected since they lived within their means - we, especially the younger generation definitely does NOT). Do you young chaps really think you will be earning ever-increasing high wages for the next 20 years so you can afford to make your builder and banker rich? Welcome to the REAL WORLD!

I expect prices - especially in IT boom cities to come down anywhere from 50% to as high as 80% in the suburbs (especially now with price of petrol). And then I will buy because the next boom will be even bigger and crazier than this one and make me a very rich dude .

Stock markets are excellent lead-indicators with a 6-9 month lead. The stock prices of leaders in RE - DLF, Sobha, Unitech, Ansal, etc - are a clear indication of the bloodbath to come in RE prices. Building (and Builder greed) is peaking, while demand is crashing. People who have already bought into flats they can ill-afford will realise - when they lose jobs OR their salaries crash - that the only way out is to lose their life-savings as well as sell "their" homes (actually banks own 80% of them on an average) at losses. Whats happening in US, etc WILL follow here. Don't believe me? Write to me when RE stocks are at 15% of their peak prices and RE is going at 30% of their peak prices.

Till then, raise cash, hold off purchases and have a little more peace of mind!

cheers