Monday, October 5, 2009

Aarohi at Sus:
Tirth Developers' Eco-Friendly Township for IT Professionals Welfare Association Pune ( ITPWAP )

An attempt to collect information about the housing project started by Information Technology Professionals working in Hinjewadi, Pune!:

"There are various hurdles in our lives,
but the biggest hurdle lies inside us
-- the hurdle to understand revolution and be part of it!" - Vinod Kamble, ITPWAP

Path Breaking Ceremony:

On 20th April' 2008, IT Professionals Welfare Association Pune (ITPWAP) performed the symbolic ground breaking ceremony of their first group housing project called "IHP Sus" .

In an email informing about this "historic event" to all members Vinod Kamble, leader of the group, said:
For many of us we are consciously aware about the monetary value the project is going to add to our lives.

And many of us are sub-consciously aware that other than the monetary value the project has revolutionize the concept of IT Professional synergy.

For those of us in the core group its not sub-consciously but consciously the awareness is there.

The effort and energy shown by our volunteers, our core group members, (Mahavir, Birendra, Sumit, Parimal, Suresh, Priyank, Ankit, Aditya, Suraj) is commendable.
Certainly, the ground breaking ceremony was, indeed, a path breaking historic event in Pune real estate market!

Path Not Taken:

Sumit, a member of 3 failed initiative and now, core member of ITPWAP, has given inspiring details in his post, dated 08-19-2009, on Indian Real Estate Forum. He says:
Well in case of Aarohi the effort was started in Jan 2007.

It took us about 6 months to gather members and shortlist the builder.

After that we spent 3 months in getting the architectural drawings into decent shape and taking bookings for 166 specific units from members.

At this point we collected cheques of 15% payment to show commitment from members but did not hand them over to the builder.

After that the process of land accusation was initiated by the builder and getting the plans sanctioned. This was achieved in Dec 2008.

We began the construction in Jan 2009. During this time we lost about 25 bookings.

The progress has been steady and currently the third slab is being poured.

Aarohi at Sus: in the 1st week of September 2009:

Patience is the Essence of Success:

In his posts on Indian Real Estate Forum, Sumit has shared valuable insights about Aarohi. He says, "We had to be patient for 2 years to see the first brick being laid." In these 2 years, he learned that:
1. Budget for time for land acquisition and verification. Don't try to cut corners in this area.

2. Budget for plan sanction delays. This alone can take up to 2-3 months. might be more.

3. It pays to invest time in detailing out architectural drawings. We went threw more than 30 iterations.

4. Getting the project sanctioned from a Bank is another time consuming thing. It took us 5 months to get Aarohi sanctioned by SBI and HDFC. This process starts after the project is sanctioned. So you need to make budget for payments to builder during this time.

5. One more thing I learn from Aarohi: All the "Luxury Amenities" Don't cost more than 300-400 Rs/sq ft for which the builders charge up to a 1000 Rs/sq.ft.

6. The salable area calculation. This is a big fraud. If we calculate the way builders in Pune calculate the salable Area the Rate the initial buyers paid in Aarohi is not 1900/sqft. It is 1650/sq.ft.

7. You can get much better quality and specs at a very reasonable rate (about 30-50% cheaper). But there are drawbacks in terms of time taken for completion (Double) and managing the whole group (I saw 3 failures before a success). Even in Aarohi we expect the construction to take anywhere between 21 to 24 months though we had planned for standard 18 months.

8. This model also has a advantage of quality control by the buyers. To give you a idea till date we have conducted more than 8 core tests, 10 ultrasonic tests. A normal commercial building also does not have such a tight quality control. You can say that members are spending about 1Cr (2% of project cost) just to ensure quality.

9. The problems we are facing is the constant monitoring of the progress, participation by the members, handling occasional payment delays by the members. Delay in contribution towards quality expenses by the members, etc.

10. Sus: the location: pros and cons:

Cons:
1. Remoteness
2. Outside PMC

Pros:

1. Is surrounded by hills from 3 sides so will be a bit removed from disturbance of a highway.
2. Near Lavale gaon where the Symboisis knowledge park is coming up
3. Half a km from Vidya Valley school

11. About Tirth Developers: the builder:
The assurance about completion stems from the fact that the builder own 185 Acres of land in Sus gaon and plans to develop a township there. Being a first time builder he need this project to showcase and sell his township. Also the financial soundness of the builder is assured by the fact that he is not leveraged and has not picked up any loans till date.

Aarohi at Sus: according to Tirth Developers:



Recently, Prashant Gaikwad, very senior real estate professional joined Tirth Developers as Vice President, Marketing & Business Development. He posted many comments on my blogs giving information about Aarohi. Though comments were irrelevant, i did not reject because i saw the effort was to give information about some good real estate project.

One day, Prashant called me. When he told me that Aarohi is ITPWAP project and my old client Mr. Vijay Raundal is developing it, i told him that i want to write about Aarohi. However, there was no website, but Prashant send me the available data and arranged for the site visit. Have a look at the information Prashant has provided to me:
Aarohi Project is a flagship eco friendly residential project by TEIRTH DEVELOPERS AND SUYOJIT INFRASTRUCTURE Ltd, Pune. Located in lush green foot hill vicinity of Sus, Pune. Unanimously Aarohi is the most scenic project in Pune. Better still, it is completely unpolluted.



Aarohi is located barely 15 Kms from the Deccan Gymkhana and just 20 minutes drive. The last stretch, after the turnoff from Sus village, is a one kilometer which we are developing for comfortable and smooth drive to the project.



Unique feature of the project apart from eco friendly is that the scheme of @ 300 units comprising of Flats, Row Houses, and Twin Bungalows etc. is jointly executed by group of young IT professionals and the developer from Pune.

The IT group consists of professionals from different IT companies all over the world who have formed a community. The motive of so many like minded professionals from all together different community, caste, state, cultural background is that most of the individuals are posted or are required to travel frequently out of India, and hence they want a close bonding within all the families in one project for having an assurance in ones mind that some one will always present next door for extending a caring hand to their families and friends back home in India whenever they are out of city or even out of country.



The main motive of Aarohi is to make your loved ones living in India feel that you are genuinely looked after by their neighbor 24X365 days for their big and small needs of life, be it an emergency medical care for your dear ones or just a matter of being someone’s assured physical presence. Every one now a days is very well aware that in today’s hectic world that in big cities like Mumbai and now even in Pune, hardly any one knows more about the person living next door!



Aarohi is the project in which ultra modern building and latest site design techniques are incorporated to not only improve the quality and performance of your home, but simultaneously reduce stress on the environment. Process of during construction and after construction, focus is paid to safe construction, recycling, natural preservation, and efficient home design elements.



An eco friendly home is one that is ideally constructed with a quality design, and requires minimal maintenance. The overall impact of constructing to the environment is kept minimum resulting in residents remain healthy. In our heavily populated country where the population is on rise all the time, so are the demands for houses, shopping malls, hotels, commercial complexes etc. are on the rise. Hence is the need of the hour to go GREEN in housing too.



All the civil work executed and the construction material used will be as per Indian Standards of various specifications (ISO), total structure will be earthquake resistance. Project will be equipped with fire fighting equipments, invertors, solar water heaters, piped gas, garbage chutes, waste water treatment plant, rain water harvesting, ample lighting in common areas/amenity spaces, complete campus will be either concrete or green. Club house will consist of 2 tennis courts, basketball court, badminton court, and play area for children, party garden, and multipurpose room with cards table, dining facility, private theatre, fully equipped gym, table tennis & pool tables, squash court, adequate parking space for visitors. An office & warehouse space will be provided for the society management.



On top of all this the developer will be giving 10 Shopping units Free to the society which in turn will act as a permanent revenue generation source for the society and the funds will be utilized for society maintenance! Also the IT group has formed a Committee and in turn this committee has appointed a Full Time Team of Engineers for QUALITY CONTROL who are associated with the developer in actively monitoring the day to day working of the project.

Aarohi at Sus: Amenities:

1) Piped Gas for all apartments, row houses & bungalows.

2) Garbage chutes.

3) Water Treatment Plant.

4) Rain Water Harvesting.

5) Shopping Complex

6) 1 covered parking and 1 open parking for Row houses and bungalows, 1

Covered parking for all flats.

7) Play area for Children.

8) 1 passenger lift & 1 service lift.

9) Office & warehouse space for the society management.

10) Religious Hall

11) Club House with (tech specification of club amenities needs to be of good

Quality at least same as flat/row houses/bungalows)

2 Tennis court

1 Basket ball Court

1 Badminton Court

Swimming Pool for Adult & Children.

Kids sitting area

Party Garden

Multipurpose Room with cards Table.

Dining Facility

Private Theatre

Gym

Table Tennis & Pool Tables

1 Squash Court

12) Adequate no of open parking for visitors

13) Fencing for row houses and bungalows

14) Open area/garden at common places in society as well as for row houses

And bungalows to be laid with lawn

15) Play area/lawn needs to be on the same plane and should not have contour

Contact:

Prashant Gaikwad
Vice President
Marketing & Business Development
TIERTH DEVELOPERS
8, Sneh Centre, Opp. Lalit Mahal Hotel,
F.C.Road, Shivajinagar,
Pune 411005 (Maharashtra), INDIA

Mobile : +91 90499 87234
Office : +91 20 2025 1969
E Mail : tierthdevelopers@gmail.com

Related Story:

Now, 96 IT Professionals can buy specious 2 & 3 BHK Flats at an affordable property rates in an ITPWAP's township at Sus which has all amenities!

Feel free to call me:

I enjoy talking, sharing my views and giving advice about buying property in Pune real estate market (so, i do not charge anything for the first 5 minutes!) Call +91 98600 44110

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11 comments:

  1. I have listen about Pune could you tell me price of apartment in Pune

    ReplyDelete
  2. the location is good and the proposed infrastructure will be useful..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Ravi,

    I was wondering if you could give any information about Angal Group and their two current projects Palazza (Balewadi) and Dwarkamai (Prabhat Rd).

    Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Have you visited Aldea espanola by puranik builders. visit www.puranikbuilders.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. The real woes of investing in realty

    Krishna Kant, ET Bureau

    A typical salaried person spends her entire working life, building nest egg for herself and her dependents. We put money in bank FDs, buy post office schemes, invest in mutual funds, subscribe to multiple insurance schemes and invest our life-long savings in real estate .

    We do all this to make sure that our dependents are not forced to cut their lifestyle after our retirement.

    In real life, however, things do not always work to be as planned. Quite often, when the monthly salary cheques stop arriving, we realise that the financial planning falls short of the target forcing painful adjustments for retirees.

    It gets even nastier if you suddenly have to meet large unexpected expenses such as medical emergency in the family. And we have seen this happening in families where prime breadwinner has retired from a cushy government job and receives generous pensions.

    So what can lead to such a situation given that Indians are one of the biggest savers in the world? A typical urban household saves nearly a quarter of his/her recurring income on a regular basis. If planned diligently, this savings would grow into a large pool at the end of your working days. So what can go wrong? Among the common causes of such a mishap is over investment in a particular assets either because we fall in love with it or due to lack of opportunity.

    Former is particularly severe in the case of traditional favourites such as real estate and life insurance policies. Real estate assets, especially a residential property, have a special lure in urban India given the housing shortage in the country and the fact that relative to income, real estate prices in India are one of the highest in the world.

    Not surprisingly, for those who can afford, house is typically their biggest investment and one that can eat up bulk of their life-long disposable income.

    But the lure of a house doesn’t stop at a roof over your head. It has now transformed into one of the most popular asset classes for upwardly-mobile urban India.

    And surprisingly, real estate investment doesn’t seem to carry any of negative attributes associated other assets such as equities (risky and unfaithful) and banks and post-office deposits (poor real returns).

    The scramble to secure a pie of the lucrative real estate market has turned into frenzy ever since the government announced a tax-break on housing loans opening floodgates to the private sector investment in real estate projects. It’s not uncommon to find individuals owning three or even four residential properties. But this over reliance on real estate as financial planning tool can turn out to be a liability in old age. Consider this, post retirement, an individual needs an income stream that is regular, fairly predictable, can rise with the increase in inflation and most importantly easy to administer.

    For all, its advertised virtues, real estate fails on the most of the above criteria. As mentioned above, a house is most often the largest investment for any individual, but it is seldom the biggest source of income/cash flows for a retiree.

    This is because post-tax yields (i.e. rents adjusted for municipal taxes, income tax on rental income and maintenance costs) are pitifully low in India.

    ReplyDelete
  6. For instance, in Mumbai, yields in most localities range from 2-3%, and this doesn’t take into account the effort involved in extracting even this nominal amount. Find a “nice and trustworthy” tenant, prepare a lease deed, get it registered and renew the agreement every 11 months and every few years find a new tenant.

    Proponents of real estate investment, however, push it as a capital appreciation tool. This requires one to sell the property at the opportune time. This is, however, easier said than done. Even in a market as liquid as Mumbai, it may take months to find a right buyer at the right price.

    And even longer for the cash to land in your pocket. And this involves a fair amount of footwork and not to talk of the documentation involved. If a real estate transaction is so complex and time-consuming in Mumbai, you can imagine the situation in other parts of the country. Young people or those in the working age group can still hope to do the necessary running around.

    But the same cannot be said about retirees. They need an asset that is no-nonsense and has almost zero transaction cost and can be liquated in the shortest possible time.

    But what if you need cash quickly and an amount that is much less than the market value of the property? Not surprisingly, even for people with large real estate portfolio, it is hardly ever the prime source of cash-flow .

    This is fine as long as you are working, but post retirement, it could prove fatal. Recently, I came across an old couple, who own six properties between themselves and their son, but can’t afford a medical surgery and the postsurgery expenses, despite the fact that one of them earns a decent pension.

    They are now caught in a bind — they can’t rent their vacant houses for fear of losing its control; but neither are they able to sell it despite their best efforts. Instead, if they had invested in fewer properties and had diversified portfolio, including equities, bank FDs, post-office deposits coupled with a medical insurance, their old age would have been much happier.

    The lesson is clear: the life is uncertain, so spreads your bets and never fall in love with an asset just because it is in circulation.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This project is in pretty bad shape, thanks to the builder who has wasted perhaps potentially great opportunity for him.

    Project specs was promising when it has began but now it's all the cheapest material been used. Further project is not yet approved by PMC and permission rejected twice. Possession was promised on June 2010 which nowhere in the sight.

    Stay away from this builder.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beware about the promises made by builder, as far as I know the project should have started in Jan'2008 and actually it started in Jan'2009. And as per the agreement with unit owners, it should be completed by Jul'2010 and everyone can the status at construction site.

    Few points are noticeable here:-
    1) Builder is not having approval for 5th floor and above.
    2) He is far behind the schedule completion date.
    3) He is not willing to share the project plan.
    4) He is not making fake promises to existing group of customers, what to say about individuals :)
    5) The price he is quoting is too high for this area whatever be the amenities in the project.

    Advise:- Visit the site and try to find out the facts from existing customers. And take your wise decision.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Official stand of IT Professional Welfare Association at Pune (ITPWAP) on Aarohi at Sus
    Reply
    Ravi Karandeekar ✆ to ITPWAP-owner, aarohiwelfare, bcc: anna
    show details 10:16 (2 minutes ago)
    To
    IT Professional Welfare Association at Pune (ITPWAP),

    On my blogs on Aarohi at Sus couple of Anonymous readers have posted negative comments about the builder Teerth Realties.

    They claim that they are the members of your group!

    One Mr. Anna Subramanium has wrote me on this issue. But he hasn't replied to my mail asking whether it's his personal opinion or he represents your group.

    Please, confirm that comments posted on my blogs does not represent the opinion of IT Professional Welfare Association at Pune (ITPWAP) and does not describe actual facts.

    If you have any other opinion and want to share your experience about your group housing project, please, feel free to write.

    As i am asking this to you, i have also asked the builder to give me an interview to share his views and experience of developing Aarohi at Sus.

    Here are the links to my
    1) Ravi Karandeekar's Pune Real Estate Market News Blog &
    2) Ravi Karandeekar's Pune Real Estate Blog
    on which you can find the comments posted by "Anonymous" readers
    as your group members:

    1) http://ravikarandeekar.blogspot.com/2009/10/aarohi-at-sus-tirth-developers-eco.html

    2) http://ravikarandeekarsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/now-96-it-professionals-can-buy.html

    3) http://ravikarandeekarsblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/teerth-realties-teerth-towers-at-baner.html

    4) http://ravikarandeekarsblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/teerth-realties-aarohi-at-sus-group.html

    Sorry to bother you!
    However, i am very much thankful to you!
    From today, I am not allowing "Anonymous" comments on my blogs!

    So, now you can send me a mail or post IT Professional Welfare Association at Pune (ITPWAP) official stand on my blog which all can read!

    Thanks,
    Yours,
    Ravi Karandeekar,
    9198600 44110
    Follow me on Google Buzz at:
    http://www.google.com/profiles/ravi.karandeekar

    ReplyDelete
  10. http://www.indianrealestateboard.com/forums/showthread.php/5759-Beware-Pune-s-Notorious-Builders./page9

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete