A doctors’ colony, another for bankers, an Air Force layout, a Goud Saraswat Brahmin community layout, a Nair residential society, a luxury residential society only for people 50 years and above. The list is growing with builders like Century, Sobha, Confident and Akruti offering customized projects targeting specific groups of people.
Why not? These projects offer a straight 10% to 20% discount over market rates to buyers of that particular community, including NRIs. However, surplus inventory is sold to general public at market prices.
Community projects are useful as they bring together likeminded people with similar backgrounds, upbringing and value systems. “This is particularly true of defence personnel, who, used to a particular lifestyle, find it very difficult to adjust to a civilian environment after retirement,” says P Ravindra Pai, MD, Century Real Estate. Century has launched two community-specific projects, one for the Goud Saraswat Brahmin community, Century Saras, and another for the Air Force, Army and Navy officers, Commanders Vista.
Auriga, a 100-acre township near Hoskote that is being developed by Confident, has been conceptualized for the Nair community living in Bangalore. Ramachandran Paleri, chairman, Karnataka Nair Services Society (KNSS), which has over 50,000 members, says he has found his dream home in Auriga.
Over 1,000 members of KNSS have bought plots. “At the time of buying, our members were offered the plots at Rs 400 per sqft when the market rates were at Rs 500 per sqft,” says Paleri. KNSS has also got land of close to 6 acres to set up a higher education school/college for the residents of Auriga.
In the first month of the two projects’ launch, Century sold 75% of its total inventory. In addition to a special price for buyers of the two communities, the developer has also added special features to the project like a temple and prayer hall at Century Saras, and a clinic and an officers mess, which has a grocery store, at Commanders Vista. In fact, Century Saras has been strategically located, almost equidistance between Kashi Mutt in Malleswaram and Gokarna Mutt.
“Today, the price tags of various residential projects are not commensurate with the salaries earned by armed forces personnel. Hence, we have to look for projects that are specific to the armed forces in order to afford them,” says an officer who has bought a property in Commanders Vista.
According to developers, the velocity of sales is far higher in community projects compared to regular residential projects.
Sobha Garrison, a residential colony exclusively for retired and serving officers of the defence services, located on Tumkur Road, was sold out even before the project started. “Normally, a project with 300-odd units would have taken 2 to 3 years to get sold out,” says JC Sharma, MD, Sobha Developers.
Sharma adds, “While the scope is limited, community projects are a value prospect for both the developer and buyer. While the developer gets a clear cash flow coupled with bulk sales, buyers get a product that’s cheaper than prevailing market rates.”
Since the target audiences of these community projects are specific and homogeneous, developers save anywhere between 2% and 5% on marketing and advertising costs.
In a couple of months, Akruti Developers will be launching a high-end luxury residential project in Whitefield, which is strictly for people aged 50 and above. Residents of the project can avail of facilities like a cook-on-request and a doctor-on-request.
“There is now a waiting list within the communities that we have already launched projects for. So there may be an opportunity to do more projects for the same communities as well. We intend to have complete townships for communities — for example, a Bankers Colony for all bank employees,” says Century’s Pai.
HOUSETHAT Century Real Estate: One block for Goud Saraswat Brahmin community and another for defence services officers
Sobha Developers: For retired and serving defence services officers
Confident: For the Nair community
Akruti Developers: For people aged 50 years and above
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