What Makes Chennai's Kolathur The Best Bet For An Affordable Buy?

North Chennai has always lagged behind when it comes to attracting homebuyers. However, things have changed. Developing infrastructure, reasonable pricing and developers introducing amenities at par with projects from reputed brands, has lately made this area a choice for buying home. One of the most promising localities here is Kolathur. Close to Grand Northern Trunk Road this locality enjoys its strategic placement close to some of the prominent localities of North Chennai. What makes it even better is the pricing. Check out more about the locality.

Price points in Kolathur

Kolathur is only 2.5 km away from one of North Chennai's residential hotspot, Perambur. But when buying property, this 2.5 km of distance can help you save an average close to Rs 1,000 per sq ft. Yes, values at Kolathur is Rs 5,135 per sq ft while Perambur's real estate value on an average stand at Rs 6,212 per sq ft. Check out the graph below to see what this translates into. More resale units are in supply although affordable new projects have surfaced too.

However, Kolathur in terms of price trends, the market has been fairly stable. For instance, through April 2013 to April 2017, the values haven't crawled much as per data with PropTiger.com.

Local brokers such as Selvan Venmazhi, Virtuos Realty say that real estate is slowly picking up after a prolonged period of slump in the market.  With the Real Estate Law in place, perhaps the sentiments are slowly turning positive. The strategic location did work wonders for the image of Kolathur. The locality is well served by arterial roads such as GNT Road and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai, the connectivity provided helps many prospective home buyers and tenants to settle down in or around Kolathur.

However, infrastructure still lags with little development that is not enough. New flyovers, better transport and work on interior roads did bring about a facelift. However, decreasing tree cover, bad approach roads, solid waste management and water scarcity needs more attention to make this affordable locality garner more attention. However, to make for this, reputed developers are going in for high-end projects packed with amenities and such homes can command as much as Rs 1.5 crore.  These boast rainwater harvesting, children's play area, jogging tracks, round the clock security and power back-up. Some lifestyle homes are also marketed on the basis of additional offerings such as gyms and yoga and multipurpose rooms.

Despite the availability of projects in almost all budget segments, a prospective home buyer should keep an essential aspect in mind. Areas such as Kolathur besides Perambur, Periyar Nagar, Sidco Nagar, Tondiarpet and parts of Ayanavaram besides others are prone to flooding. Construction work at various places, increase in height of streets or roads over the years and sometimes even violations of building bye-laws lead to such issues. Therefore, it becomes important to check the following documents which the draft rules for Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory body states as mandatory approval list, which should be available in a downloadable format. Here are these approvals and NOC's:

• Consent to Establish and Operate
• Coastal Regulation Zone Clearance
• Environmental Clearance
• No objection certificate from Fire and Rescue Service Department
• Archaeological Survey of India
• Permission from Water and Sewerage Board/Authority
• Permission from Public Works Department
• Height clearance from Airport Authority of India
• Such other approvals as may be required and obtained for the project under any law for the time being in force

Also, home buyers must check whether the project they are investing in has an authenticated copy of the building permit, building sanction plan from competent authority in accordance with the laws applicable for the project, and where the project is proposed to be developed in phases, an authenticated copy of the planning permission, building permit/building sanction plan, completion certificate for each of such phases. Once you are clear on these terms, you can be sure you are not treading on the wrong route of investment.

As for working professionals, some of the popular IT parks and facilities are nearby and hence homes on rent command anywhere between Rs 5,000- 30,000 per month depending upon the size, the make, the age of the unit and the brand of the developer.