Discounted Flats (DF), an attempt to assist home buyers to drive a hard bargain, has recorded sales of Rs 120 crore, with sales of more than 300 flats, according to a press release from the company. With over 80,000 registered buyers, since the launch a month ago, Discounted Flats claims a consolidated savings of nearly Rs 3 crore. It has 7,600 project-specific groups, and more than 2,000 location-specific groups across six cities.

The discounted flat scheme negotiates with developers on behalf of buyers to get a good deal. It is a pre-formed group that helps customers save up to 30 per cent of the flat / home cost, and provides a comprehensive comparison of projects, along with end-to-end personalised service to buyers, including site visits. This service is free for home buyers, the release said.

Mr Sandeep Sugla, CEO, Discounted Flats, said in the release, “the pre-formed home buyers group is the only way to negotiate the right deal. A home buyer's top preference is location and budget. Leveraging on this need of a home buyer, we grouped together home buyers who were looking to buy a flat in specific location, in specific budget, and negotiate a wholesale deal with the builder.”

Discountedflats.com gives the home buyer an aerial view of all properties located in the 3 km radius from the preferred destination, with a consolidated comparative data on budget, distance, possession status and price per square foot. Discountedflats (DF) is a Pan-India group booking channel, which groups individual residential buyers based across India, to avail discounts of up to 30 per cent. The cities covered presently are Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and it will be soon expanding to some other cities.

SARE offers expandable home

SARE Homes has launched Meadowville, a 65-acre township at Kolathur to the south of Chennai. The project will offer two-bedroom residential units in the first phase, with prices starting at Rs 25 lakh. According to a press release from the company, this launch is a milestone for SARE Homes, as it marks the developer's presence in the two major growth corridors of Chennai, namely the IT corridor and GST Road (NH 45). At its first project in Chennai on the IT corridor, Crescent ParC-Dewy Terraces, the company has sold more than 1,000 units.

Meadowville township is located approximately 3 km off the GST Road at Kolathur, 28 km from Chennai Airport. It is nestled in a growing suburb, close to Mahindra City, major educational institutes and industrial hubs of Oragadam, which house major automobile and IT/ITeS companies. MeadowVille offers row housing, group housing, premium villas and expandable villas. To begin with, the company plans to open bookings for a limited number of ‘Expandable Villas'. The release, quoting Mr David Walker, Executive Director, SARE Homes, said that SARE Homes is investing Rs 2,000 crore in two projects in Chennai, totalling 173 acres, with a saleable area of 6.2 million square feet. Built as Ground-plus-2 expandable villas in the first phase, Meadowville is a self-contained township, offering a community lifestyle with education, hospitals, restaurants and recreation facilities. Expandable Villas allow the buyer to own a piece of land, with the possibility of adding an extra floor, based on family requirement. The building plans are pre-approved, so the buyer can build in future. SARE Homes has invested in eight integrated projects in Chennai, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Amritsar, which represent approximately 36 million square feet of developable area.

JNNURM banks on PPP

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has circulated a “Toolkit for analysis of Urban Infrastructure Projects for Public-Private-Partnerships under JNNURM” to identify projects eligible for private sector participation, according to an official press release.

It contains a simple checklist for the urban local body functionaries, to determine if a project is amenable to PPP.

The Mission Directorate has also provided support to select cities, to operationalise the toolkit. The mission was launched in December 2005 for reforms-driven and speedy development of cities, with focus on efficiency, urban infrastructure, service delivery mechanisms, community participation and accountability of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and parastatal agencies towards citizens. The press release of a written reply by the Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr Saugata Roy, in the Lok Sabha, said 65 cities are covered under the Urban Infrastructure & Governance (UIG) component of JNNURM. The remaining cities are eligible for Additional Central Assistance (ACA) under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT), subject to availability of funds. It was proposed to include the following 28 cities' agglomerations, with a population of 5 lakh and above, under the UIG component of JNNURM, out of which Salem, Tiruchirappalli and Tiruppur are from Tamil Nadu. Due to resource constraints, the Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance could not agree to include these cities under UIG of JNNURM. Encouraging private partnership for provision of various services is one of the key reforms to be undertaken by the States/Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) under the Mission. To achieve this, cities are to undertake a number of reforms aimed at improvement of municipal governance and financial sustainability.

comment COMMENT NOW