1. Structure:

• RCC Framed Structure, Seismically Designed

2. Walls:

• 9″ Brick External Wall and 4 1/2″ Internal Partition Wall

3. Flooring:

• Living I Dining:24″ x 24″ Vitrified flooring tiles – 4″ Skirting of Vitrified tiles Kajaria or Equivalent
• Bedrooms & Balcony:24″ x 24″ Vitrified flooring tiles 4″ Skirting of Vitrified tiles – Kajaria or Equivalent
• Kitchen:20mm Black Granite for Counter with Full Nosing. 8″ x 12″ Anti-skid Ceramic Dado with Motif & border tile for Counter, 2’0″ height, Kajaria or Equivalent
• Modular Kitchen: (MDF wood work) below the Counter Part will be provided. Other additions optional Shelf – Granite
• Wash Area:12″ x 12″ Anti Skid Ceramic flooring tiles – Kajaria or Equivalent 8″ x 12″ ceramic wall tiles, upro 3′ Height – Kajaria or Equivalent
• Toilets:12″ x 12″ Anti Skid Ceramic flooring tiles – Kajaria or Equivalent 8″ x 12″ ceramic wall tiles, Full Height – Kajaria or Equivalent
• Common Area:Staircase – Anti-skid Ceramic flooring tiles – matt finish, 4″ Skirting – Kajaria or Equivalent
  24″ x 24″ Vitrified flooring tiles for Common Area & 4″ skirting – Kajaria or Equivalent
• Lift Fascia: 10mm Granite Tiles – 9″ or suitable width

4. Joineries :

Doors:

• Main Door:Teak Wood doors with ornamental finish Kutty or Equivalent
• French Door:UPVC Doors – Fenesta or Equivalent with clear Glass panes
• Other Doors:Padak wood frames with flush doors – Kutty I Equivalent
• Bath I Toilet Doors:- Padakwood Flush doors (BWR grade)- Kutty I Equivalent
• Window: UPVC – Fenesta or Equivalent 4mm thick Pinhead glass panes – Saint Gobain or Equivalent
• Two Split AlC provision for 3 Bed Room flats and one Split AlC provision for 2 Bed Room models
• MS Grills as per Architect Design
• Ventilators:UPVC – Fenesta or Equivalent with pinhead glass Louvers in Toilers.
• Exhaust Fan Provision in Kitchen.

5. Hardware:

• Main Door:Lock- Godrej or Equivalent, Magic Eye, Fixtures and Brass Coated Hinges
• Other Doors: Oxidized Round Lock with antique finish, oxidized M.S.Hinges

6. Painting:

• Putty with Emulsion painting – Asian Paint or Equivalent
• External Walls – Exterior Weather Shield – Asian Paint or Equivalent
• Enamel Painting for Joinery & MS Grill Works – Asian Paint or Equivalent
• Varnish I Melamine Matt Finish for Main Door

7. Electrical:

• 3-Phase Power Supply with Concealed PVC Conduit of ISI Quality, Copper Wiring, Switches – Anchor Roma or
  Equivalent, MCB Breaker, Tripper and DB Box
  • A) Living I Dining Room: Two ceiling fan Point (Living 1, Dining 1), One TV Point, One Telephone Point, one 15Amps Point, one 5 Amps Point, Four Light Points including one Chandeliet Point
  • B) Bedrooms: Two Light Points, One Ceiling fan Point (Two Way Switch), Two 5 Amps Point, AlC Point, Telephone Point in one Bedroom, 5 Amps point for Computer
  • C) Kitchen: Two Light Points, Two 15A Points, One Exhaust Fan Point and one 5 Amps for Electrical Chimney Point
  • D) Service area: One light point, 15 Amps Point
  • E) Toilets: Common Toilet: One Light Point, One Geyser Point, One Exhaust fan Point Attached Toilets: One light Point, One Geyser Point, Exhaust Fan Point, one 5 Amps Point, Mirror Light Point
  • F) Balcony :- One Light Point, One Fan Point (Ceiling Hook for swing – Optional)

8. Plumbing:

• Sanitary: Common Toilet: White colour Orissa pan lWC with Low Level Flush Tank – Rectangular Wash Basin – Parryware or Equivalent (Other colour’s – Optional)
• Attached Toilets: White colour Floor mounted EWC with Low 
• Kitchen: Stainless Steel Sink with Single Bowl with Single
• Drain Board: Diamond or Equivalent
• Attached Toilets:Fittings, 2-in-l Wall Mixtures & Health Faucet of Jaquar or Equivalent
• Common Toilet:Fittings of Jaquar or Equivalent

Courtesy : http://www.vgngroup.org/Zodiac_Ville_Specifications.html

Image Courtesy : associatedcontent.com

DID YOU KNOW?

• It takes just 7 hours for one germ to multiply into a colony of millions.
• 189. The number of germ types that may inhabit your toilet.
• Up to 80 per cent of food poisoning cases are caused by germs inside your home.
• Every time you flush your toilet, you are helping germs to spread.
• More than 50 per cent of bacteria found in bathroom toilet originate from faeces.
• Ideal breeding grounds for germs are Toilet seats, Towels, Door knobs, flush handles etc.
• Even a toilet that is clean-looking can be a breeding ground for germs.
• Deadly germs like diphtheria can live on toilet surfaces for as many as 180 days.
• One square centimetre in a clean-looking toilet can be home to as many as several million germs.

So keep your toilets and bathroom extra clean. Use disinfectants on a regular basis.

Found this interesting document online and thought of posting it here on aavaas.

 HomechkList

[source : http://www.indianinteriordesigns.com]

Thank to forum member Gross36 for this article.

When you think of your home what emotions flicker through your mind first. Does your home evoke emotions like bliss, freedom from worry (‘Hakuna Mattata!’), ecstasy, pleasure, peace, etc? Do you have lots of free time with your family? If the answer to these questions were ‘No’, then you are not realizing the full potential of your house. A home should be a place of serenity, peace, and joy. It should not add to your list of burdens, but reduce them.

Most often than not, regular maintenance and payment of various bills to concerned authorities are the time consumers and worry factors. Dealing with the painting contractor, or a leaky faucet is not the way to start a day. Trying to get the defective water meter fixed or paying a visit to the municipal office is not a task easily undertaken.

A caretaker would solve the situation, but what about the expenses involved. All these and more can be solved if the expenses for a good caretaker can be shared among a number of flat owners. A caretaker can pay electricity, water, and property tax bills. He can deal with the gardeners, painting contractors, plumbers, and carpenters needed to keep your home in excellent condition. It’s time to develop your property.

A number of Kochi flat and apartment builders undertake to develop your property using their expertise and apart from a brand new flat of your own, you get readily marketable spaces, as flats. You also have the option of selling only when the price is high.

Staying in a rented apartment and troubled by your landlord with rent increases every now and then? You should know that there are regulatory limits to which the rent can be raised by the landlord. It is not just a question of whether or not there are people willing to pay more to occupy the same apartment.

Only 12% of the total cost of the building is supposed to be charged as rent for commercial buildings, and just 9% if it is a residential accomodation! The total cost of the building is the sum of the land cost (based on guideline values of Registration department)  and the building cost (calculated by Chied Engineer Buildings).

Tenants have got the right to approach the rent control court to get the fair rent fixed, in case exorbitant rentals are being asked for. The rent control court will take into consideration the guideline values prepared by PWD (Public Works Department) for the relevant apartment and arrive at a decision.

However, in the long term land costs will increase as an area becomes more urbanised and thus its guideline rates will increase. As a result of this, the rentals that can be demanded by the landlords will eventually increase, although in short term tenants are protected by the fact that PWD may not have revised their guideline values appropriately.

If one had taken a loan in 2003 for about 11 lakhs,  repayable over 20 years; the interest rate would have been a measly 7.25%. The EMI (equal monthly installments) for repayments would have been just Rs. 9000.  However now it is 2008 and those home loan recepients who opted for floating home loan rates at the time will find that their EMIs have been adjusted upwards. Some banks have set it as high as 13%, which translates into an EMI of Rs. 12,000 !!

Quite a jump from the 2003 figure. Actually, a 33% increase over  2003 repayments.  If one were to account for inflation during the lapsed years, it probably would just about reach the cumulative figure of 33%. In essence, this means that the 2003 home loan recepient is paying as much today in EMIs as he was in 2003. Usually, this is not supposed to happen.

Inflation is supposed to make the EMIs more affordable as time goes on. Unfortunately enough, for us Indians that has turned out not to be the case. But don’t depair yet.

I spoke to a friend of  mine who works in a large Retail Bank. When asked specifically about the increasing interest rate impacting people who took loans negatively, he said that banks will probably increase the number of payments that are required rather than increase the per EMI amount. However, more than 25 years of payments is not possible to accept for banks and so at that threshold they will increase the EMI payments.

Reports from the construction industry indicate that the cost of constructing new buildings have increased dramatically in the last one year or so.

Cost of steel has doubled in the last one year to about Rs. 60,000 a tonne. Similarly, cement prices are continuously rising and so are sand prices. Of course, labour and transport are also much more expensive. All this adds upto what is described below.

Just an year back, overall construction costs were only about Rs. 1250 per sq ft. (itself quite high compared to previous years) then it increased to Rs. 1400 per sq. ft. about six months back. Now in the last few months, it has hovered between Rs. 1650 and Rs. 1800 per sq. ft. 

Large projects can take years to complete, during which such cost increases can eliminate margins of the builders. So Credai (Confedaration of Real Estate Developers Association of India) is likely to insist on inserting escalation clauses to cover such increases in future.

Translation – buyers will have to pay for these increases in future. Trust the builders to pass on these cost to the end users, who as usual have no real say in the matter.

Yesterday morning I had a surprise phone call from an agency that was arranging to take people on a site visit to some place near the Mahindra World City SEZ in Chennai. They said they had gotten my number from justdial.

I certainly hadn’t given justdial permission to share my mobile number with 3rd parties, but I couldn’t resist listening to the pitch nevertheless, considering my posts on aavaas. Seems like the price there is already 650 per square feet. Mind you, this is at least 7 km from the large 1400 acre SEZ and 3.5 km into the interior from the main GST road.

On my enquiry as to why the price was so high (what else would a potential buyer say ), they gave the usual spiel about the plots being DTCP approved and that it is fenced etc. Thought it worth putting up here, since we were discussing about finding lands in areas that are about to be urbanised. Am sure any real estate agent would know of dozens of these layouts and there are several online portals also.

But Caveat emptor.. buyer beware..

With some interesting comments from our readers in the last post, thought I’ll do one more post in this series. This being primarily to identify situations where apartments are better than independent houses purely on an investment basis.

Anyone who has read part 3 & part 4 would know in which direction my views lie. But if I have learned anything in life, it is that there is an exception to every rule and a negative to every positive and vice versa and inside out and forward backward. That’s why the world works and remains interesting to us. To cut short on the philosophy front and getting to the point – not all independent houses are necessarily superior. The ‘location’ matters a tremendous amount.

If you go and buy a villa/bungalow in a village/small town thinking it is a better investment, I am sorry!! You can wait till elephants roost on trees and relatively nothing would have changed on the price front for your villa. Real estate price increases is largely centred around urban centres and will continue to be so. Only exception I know of is Kerala where land prices have increased tremendously even in villages. The reason is unique to it – NRI Keralites are treating the entire state as a retirement home.

One of the good things when you buy an apartment is that you are naturally protected against the foolishness of buying something in a remote corner of the country. The apartment builders who are sinking in their money would have ensured that the location is relatively alright and ripe for future urbanisations. And the degree to which a locality gets urbanised is what will eventually determine the future value of homes in that area. When I say urbanised, I don’t mean noisy-polluted streets; rather that it is an area of job creation so that people will immigrate to it than emigrate from it.

 So, to sum up the investment theme on homes:

If you are an average joe who doesn’t want think too much but want a good investment that is sure to appreciate, shut your eyes and buy an apartment in any of the top Indian cities. You will not regret it.

If you think you are smarter than the average guy and feel that you have what it takes to make indpendent decisions involving relatively large sums of money, buy a villa near a locality that you judge to be ripe for urbanisation. Reward is more if urbanisation happens; but if your judgement is wrong, prices can stay flat for upwards of 10 years..

Continuing from here

In my slightly involved earlier post, I had pointed out why an independent house was a better investment over a run of the mill apartment. The argument basically tried to highlight that there was a hidden risk of downward bias in apartment prices, hinging on when the state governments decide to relax the strict FSI norms prevalent in most states of India. It talked about a scenario that may or may not happen in the immediate future.

However, there is an even clearer/surer reason why apartments should be less preferred. A typical flat owner in Chennai (one of those places with the low 1.5 FSI)  will have ownership of maybe 700-900 square feet of undivided land. A luxury flat may have 1000-1200 square feet. Compare this to an independent house; the land there will have to be atleast 1200 square feet (if you want to construct a small house).

Clearly, there is more land associated with even a small house than with even the larger  luxury flats. When FSI is relaxed, this difference will become even wider.

Now 2 things:

1. Construction styles change over a period of time and buildings get fully depreciated in value after 30-40 years. In the short term one maybe tempted to believe that increases in construction costs mean that one’s home gains in value – it is true enough, but only for the present. In the long term, most constructions are worthless because newer tastes will become fashionable. The only part that continuously gains in value is land.

2. Even in the current times when construction costs are increasing as fast as anyone can remember, land prices in cities is appreciating faster. So even for those whose horizon is a short 1-2 years, a unit with more land maybe the preferable purchase.