The New Real Estate Mantra – Integrated Residential Projects : Anil Pharande

When you are setting out to purchase the home you always dreamed of and saved for, you obviously wanted something more than just an orphaned, anonymous set of walls in some congested city center. The problem is, that’s all that most residential projects in India offer these days. There is a lot more to the perfect home than good construction, layout and fittings – a residential property needs supporting social and physical infrastructure to become a suitable home. Moreover, the beleaguered city dweller’s heart yearns for the sight of greenery, open spaces and fresh air.

After all, we want our children to grow up in better conditions than we possibly experienced at their age…

In Pune, integrated townships have been seen as the answer to these requirements. However, land constraints, zoning laws and the budgetary considerations that govern property buyers in many areas often do not make the integrated township model feasible. A more practical and feasible alternative is Integrated Residential Projects.

Like integrated townships, this more compact and serviceable model offers home buyers everything they need for a comfortable and healthy lifestyle. Children have enough room to play in, and both they and their parents are free from the stress, noise and pollution of central urban life. Such projects have schools, shopping and entertainment facilities, healthcare and easy access to public transport.

Also (very importantly) they are a boon to people who wish to live in a non-urban environment while attending to their jobs in the workplace catchments of the city. They get a dream location, excellent infrastructure and a lot more.

Residential real estate investors, on their part, can capitalize on the higher demand – and therefore the higher ROI (returns on investment) that such properties offer. The higher investment potential of homes in integrated residential projects stems from the fact that they are self-sufficient and self-sustaining. A direct outcome of this is that the resale value of such properties is as good as immune to market volatility. Because of the diversified nature of such projects, they represent a very low risk to property investors, even while they benefit from the larger upside potential despite low entry costs.

Builders who cater to the demand for integrated residential projects face quite few challenges. After all, they have to provide the advantages of integrated townships while having to forgo the considerable incentives that the Indian Government offers for the development of larger townships. Therefore, the initial capital required is extremely steep – right from land acquisition to the providing of physical and social infrastructure.

The integrated residential project concept is just beginning to emerge on the Indian real estate landscape. One of the areas where it has been successfully implemented is Pune’s sister city – the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. One of the primary reasons for the success of the integrated residential projects in the PCMC areas of Pradhikaran and Ravet is the fact that these are located very close to vital workplace hubs such as the MIDC and Hinjewadi, Pune’s software hub. This, coupled with the advantages of having ‘everything inside’, has contributed to the demand for homes in such projects.