Affordable pricing is key to lure customers-Arun Excello

Arun Excello Group of Companies points out the disparity and ‘mismatch’ between affordable and high-end housing. There have been several contrarian trends in Chennai’s realty sector. Various factors like high registration fees have led to stagnancy in the real estate sector as well as the economic growth. The realty developers in the suburbs of Chennai have adopted affordable pricing policies for doing brisk business and expanding their market. There has been a major shift in the preferences of buyers which has left the developers confused.

Various luxury houses and apartments are available for the luxurious segment including high earners and NRIs.  However, the real demand lies in the middle and low sections of society. Many developers have come up with new flexible options for payment like to lure the customers. “Pay your rental advance of Rs 1.25 lakh as down payment and move in to your own house!” scream ads from the hoardings. Arun Excello states that there has been a significant increase in the affordable housing projects in the outskirts of Chennai. With the construction of Tamil Nadu’s tallest building by Akshaya Group on the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), the company plans to build several affordable homes on OMR as well.

“We are developing Sriperumbudur, OMR and Porur areas for affordable projects,” says Ravindran of Akshaya Group.  Around 2034 flats are being offered in the project at Kelambakkam.  The apartments are offered at an affordable price starting from Rs 38-40 lakh.

Various other developers like Inno Geocity’s Sundar have added affordable projects in Chennai.  Explaining about his project he said that, “Though the Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road corridor is a bit crowded, it still has affordable projects. But we are now concentrating on Oragadam,” The flats are offered at rates as low as Rs 30 lakh by the company.

Arun Excello offers a wide range of apartments priced at affordable rates for the middle section of society. “We have seven projects at hand. Three are done and four have been newly launched,” says Hemanth of Arun Excello. He further added that, “Our Temple Green project, that we call ‘affordable luxury’ starts at Rs 18 lakh. We also aim at lower income groups. Our projects like Behag, Vasantha and Lathangi all start at Rs 9 lakh. Each developer has his own reason for choosing a particular area for their project. “Oragadam has great employment opportunities in the automobile, blue chip and IT sectors. There are about 3 lakh people working in the Sriperumbudur and Oragadam belts.”