Is the 1BHK concept going to stay?
|
The city is becoming larger and people need to either move out from the central area or go in for smaller accommodation, says K. Sukumaran
|
Reality: In cities, living spaces are getting narrower
In these days of nagging increase in prices of essential commodities, what is an ideal budget for the home buyer? What can be considered a fit residential house size? Will the 1BHK concept satisfy the urge for a comfortable home? Let us briefly look into the issues involved.
First, what is a home buyer looking for? The home buyer is normally a person who wants to set up a family or one who looks around for investment options. Investment in house property used to be the last choice once upon a time as it is illiquid. But over time, the situation changed dramatically.
With the tax exemptions allowed by the government for repayment of loans and interest paid on loans for purchase of house property/construction of houses, investment in property received a shot in the arm.
As for the one who wants to set up a family, his needs depend normally on the number of members in the family, price quoted for the house and available surplus for repayment of loan. Location and distance from work place, possibility of future expansion and the like come next.
While investing in a house, the bedroom concept comes to the fore. This is a universal concept. In some western countries, if one has old parents staying with him, they have to be provided separate bedroom/s, preferably on the ground floor.
If there is a child in the family, he has to have a separate bedroom. Only in undeveloped and underdeveloped countries do people huddle together and sleep in the hall. In India, the economic condition of the people has an overbearing effect on the type of housing accommodation one goes in for.
The Indian situation
In India, promotion of housing initially came from the government. For the middle and upper middle class, affordability is the key. Tighten your belt or cut the coat according to the cloth! One-room tenement is normally for bachelors. The studio concept is for the western bachelors, which consist of, apart from a bedroom, a dining place, a kitchenette and shower.
The increase in income of people during the last 10-15 years due to higher industrial growth, proliferation of software firms etc enabled the white-collar groups to go in for larger and luxurious houses. While the prices of houses skyrocketed on the one side, repaying capacity of home buyers too swelled on the other.
The global meltdown turned the table upside down and investment in house property has been hit badly. Since then, people have been waiting for the prices to come down, though not much reduction in prices took place. Instead, sellers were offering marginal benefits like furniture, kitchen equipment etc.
Shifting demand
The above situation led to shift in demand from large or fairly large accommodation to lesser floor space. Another reason might have been the wait for locating accommodation in the city centre area.
Improvement in transportation facilities, construction of ring road and peripheral ring road, metro rail etc also factored in. The development of townships in and around the peripheries of cities also shifted the demand from one location to the other. There was a time when small apartments went abegging in Yelahanka, Kengeri, Whitefield and Bannerghatta Road. The story has changed now.
After the economic slowdown, salaries took a downslide and people thought of various methods to beat the recession.
One major approach has been to go in for lower floor area houses. The city is becoming larger and people need to either move out from the central area or go in for smaller accommodation. In this background, the one-bedroom tenement is perhaps the solution.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Property Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Kochi
Malabar
Thiruvananthapuram
