Coimbatore – A City of choice for real estate investment
From being a brief halt for travellers proceeding to the Nilgiris, Coimbatore is fast becoming a city that retirees want to wake up to, corporates want to put in the big bucks and young professionals want to stay back in, rather than move out from.
Coimbatore is in about equidistant from three of the major southern cities — Chennai, Bangalore and Cochin; smaller towns like Madurai, Trichy, Salem and Mysore are also within 200 kilometres from Coimbatore; and any place within the city falls within a 5 kilometre radius.
Add to this the low crime rate, good supply of water and ideal climate, and Coimbatore’s advantages can be seen.
Coimbatore Apartment buildings prices
Five years back, only 10 real estate projects were announced every year in Coimbatore. Over the years, that figure has jumped to 40 projects per year with takers for all of them.
A city that loved its independent houses, it is now making way for the inevitable apartment buildings.
The mark of distinction, between Coimbatore and the other five Tier II cities in the state, lies in the unhurried pace at which the landscape is changing and the city’s capacity to absorb flamboyant luxury apartments.
Coimbatore has a much better luxury segment when compared to the other Tier II cities
“Coimbatore has a much better luxury segment when compared to the other Tier II cities because of high per capita income and purchasing power of the people. Basically Coimbatore is a trading centre which has a population of four million. The city has a high literacy rate and its residents are generally brand conscious,” says Mr. Badal Yagnik, Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle, Chennai, explaining the trend of luxury apartments, which the city is warming up to.
Having an individual house is the height of aspiration for people in Coimbatore. Thwarting its realization are the skyrocketing land rates within the city limits. Luxury apartments with high end finishes, are the answer for many, say experts.
Four years back, with the entry of builders like Pricol, Cotton City Developers, Mayflower, Srivari Constructions and few others, into the luxury segment, the trend set in.
Prime areas of Coimbatore
“Today, buying a villa in areas like Race Course, Sai Baba Colony and R.S.Puram is not viable because there is simply no land available. This high-end segment of buyers will not want to settle for anything ordinary. Luxury apartments are the consequence, and can today cost up to two and a half crores,” says Akshay Khanna, Joint Managing Director, Foundation One. His company is one of the new entrants, with two projects in the upscale locality of R.S.Puram.
Taking luxury to a different level is Rakindo Property Developers with their Kovai Hills project, slated to be completed in six years. It is a golf-centric integrated township, spread across 850 acres. Located on the Coimbatore-Palakkad corridor, it is a mere eight kilometres away from the city centre.
Explaining their choice of city, K.Vidyasankar, General Manager, Business Development, Rakindo Developers, says, “In metros like Chennai, such a huge parcel of land situated so close to the city would have been impossible. Coimbatore being the second largest city in the State, has the potential and infrastructure for a project like ours.”
Their project caters mainly to the affluent in Coimbatore, Tirupur & NRIs.
“If you have a BMW but don’t have good roads to drive it on, then you only own something luxurious but not the opportunity to experience it. At this township, you have luxury that can be experienced,” he adds.
There are on offer three categories of villas that start at Rs. 85 lakhs and independent plots that cost up to two and half crores.
For people in Coimbatore, the road to luxury stops not at buying these apartments or villas, but at doing up the interiors with the choicest of fittings and finishes, says Arun Prasad P, Principal Architect Planner, Arun & Associates.
Coimbatore real estate prices
“I have worked on houses where they have spent around Rs. 30 lakhs to get their house fully automated. Meaning, you have one central control system to control the air-conditioners, lights and fans of the house, open your window screens with a remote and have mood settings among other things. They spend, on an average, around 1000-5000 rupees per square feet on just the interiors of their homes.”
In other words, people spend up to 1.25 crores on interiors for a 2,500 square feet apartment in this segment.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle, 52 per cent of the buyers in the luxury segment are end users, 18 per cent of them are from outside Coimbatore and 30 per cent are NRIs.
The large chunk of outside investments can be attributed to the high rate of appreciation (15- 20 per cent) here, when compared to other Tier II cities.
Also, the city’s emergence as a vibrant IT destination seems to have boosted the rates.
