Property deals pick up,register 11% growth 

High Guideline,Mortgage Rates In TN No Dampener 

Julie Mariappan TNN 

Chennai: After a slump during last fiscal when real estate purchases fell 23.54%,property registration in the state appears to be clawing back with a 11% growth in registrations in April-May 2013.
The government of Tamil Nadu raised guideline values sharply the base price at which a property is registered effective April 1,2012.This coupled with high lending rates impacted new home buys.With no signs of a rollback on guideline rates and mortgage rates,property registrations appear to have picked up.New property registrations were homogenous and spread across the state,data from the states registration department showed.Registrations in April-May stood at 4.47 lakh as against 4.03 lakh a year ago,a rise of 10.87%.
Among the regions which witnessed strong growth includes,Kancheepuram,Chengalapet,Kumbakonam,Nagapattinam,Pattukottai,Myladuthurai,Namakkal,Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri.
There was a definitive slowdown.Besides,February and March are months where companies race to achieve their sales targets which could have compromised on prices.But we are witnessing a definitive improvement in both sentiment and sales, T Chitti Babu,MD of Akshaya Homes said.
Chennai lead with 18.9% growth in property deals.Southern sub-urban areas like Medavakkam,Pallikaranai,Neelankarai,Guduvancherry,Tambaram and Tiruporur witnessed strong growth.The other hot-spots were Siruthavur,Panaiyur and Kelambakkam off Vandalur and East Coast Road,data showed.Thanjavur and Salem recorded 17.24% and 14% growth respectively in property deals.The registration of documents hovered around 27 lakh to 35 lakh till 2008,and fell to 26 lakh last year.
Agreed Suresh Krishn of Isha Homes.The past two months have been fairly good in terms of new sales.We tend to believe that the downward bias has been halted. 
Sales in drought-hit delta districts were brisk.Thanjavur region,comprising of Nagapattinam,Pattukkottai,Myladuthurai,Kumbakonam has recorded good growth.At least 50% of the sale is registered against agricultural lands and the rest in urban areas, said a district officer in Thanjavur.The proximity to NH7 and NH45,the busiest national highways,are attracting buyers to the industrial corridor of Salem,particularly Hosur.
With too many choices around,buyers are window shopping.The sale will pick up, Sundaram BNP Paribas Home Finance Ltd managing director Srinivas Acharya said.With the National Housing Bank (NHB) Residex,that tracks on the housing prices in cities suggesting fall in real estate prices of several areas in Chennai region,Acharya said,the demand will soon pick up.There is a high rise in first time buyers, he said.
In the Western parts of the state,property buying was strong in Namakkal and Thiruchengode towns,famous for super schools.

Corpn goes slow on illegal bldgs,only 13 razed in 2 yrs 

343 Structures Served Lock & Seal Notices,137 Sealed 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Chennai: Chennai Corporation appears to be dealing with building norm violators with kid gloves.The civic body has issued lock-and-seal notices to 343 buildings which violated rules between April 2011 and March 2013,but it demolished only 13 of them.
The violations include deviations from original plans and construction without permission.Corporation officials justify the small number claiming that a building is demolished only if it poses a danger to its inhabitants or neighbours.
Demolition is the last resort,done only to weak buildings, said an official.We prefer sealing them instead. 
Of the 343 buildings for which lock-and-seal orders were issued,only 137 were sealed.Once we issue a notice,a majority of them modify the building or correct the deviations or normalise it, said the official.Obviously neither of the above was done to the illegal building in Teynampet that collapsed on Sunday evening,killing a 27-year-old woman.
Senior corporation officials including mayor Saidai Duraisamy who visited the spot on Sunday evening promised that a survey would be conducted in the area.We will identify all illegal and shaky buildings and take action against them, said a senior elected representative.
After a similar tragedy in Triplicane in which three people were killed last year,the corporation had announced that joint engineers of every ward would survey all the buildings in their jurisdiction,and make a list of all the illegal and weak buildings.
Officials said the list of buildings requiring attention is being prepared and reviewed every week.Corporation officials in Teynampet zone refused to confirm if the building that collapsed on Sunday featured on the list.Once a building with deviations is identified,we issue a lock-and-seal notice, said the official.They,however,admitted that many of the notices are not followed up regularly to check for compliance or further action.
Joint engineers and executive engineers in the zone said they dont find the time to identify each building that has issues and chase the owners.We are supposed to inspect every corner of our ward once a week, said a junior engineer based in Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar.But,its impossible.But we also have to keep tabs on roads,parks,drains,building plan approvals and garbage clearance. 

ON A SHAKY GROUND 

No.of buildings demolished | 13 No.of buildings sealed | 137 No.of buildings issued notices | 343 (from March 2011 to April 2013) 

Organisations that clear building plans 

Chennai Corporation | Ground plus one storey or stilt plus two storeys Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority | Three to five storeys Housing development minister | Multistorey buildings above five storeys

POOR LITTLE RICH WARDS POES GARDEN,NUNGAMBAKKAM,ADYAR 
High expectations lead to low opinions in tony zones 

Pratiksha Ramkumar | TNN 


Poes Garden,which chief minister Jayalalithaa,Superstar Rajnikanth and many of the rich and famous call home,isnt seen as the best place to live in.It isnt even among the top 20 best places to live in the city.
According to a public perception survey,conducted by The Times of India,on quality of life,ward 118 which includes Poes Garden,Venus Colony,former chief minister M K a r u n a n i d h i s l o c a l i t y Gopalapuram,and other posh parts of Alwarpet is ranked 60.
The question is: Does this reflect government apathy or is just that its residents complain far too much 
One of the surprise findings was that residents who live in the most expensive neighbourhoods are not necessarily satisfied with their quality of life.Ward 118 ranked its satisfaction on every parametersafety,public transport,water,sanitation,power and open spacesbetween 2.1 and 2.8 on a scale of five.
Though Teynampet (Zone 9) comes in second overall,many of its wards have ranked themselves lower on the scale of 0 to 5,with 5 being the highest.The Corporation has divided the 15 zones of the city into 200 wards,with each ward comprising a few streets.Chennai Patrol went ward by ward to ask residents to rank their quality of life on six parameters.
Other seemingly posh neighbourhoods fared no better than Poes Garden.Ward 111comprising Khader Nawaz Khan Road,Rutland Gate,Wallace Garden,and other localities with sky-high real estate priceswere even unhappier.The ward,also part of Teynampet zone,came in at 74th place,giving themselves scores ranging from 1.8 to 2.9.
So,if the quiet,tree-lined roads with mansions have unsatisfied residents,which is the best place to live in Turns out,its ward 52 in the heart of Royapuram,one of the oldest parts of north Chennai,known for air pollution linked to coal handling in the port.Residents ranked themselves highly (more than 4 on 5) on safety and public transport,saying bus services were frequent and it is safe for women and at night.
But,many of its residents are surprised by the findings.Debris is dumped on either side of Cemetery Road,and Model Lines is dirty and unsafe, said G Arun Kumar,who has lived in Sengalvarayan Street in the ward for more than 25 years.People drink on the main road and smoke in Robinson Park, said K Kabir,a resident of Anjeneyapuram in ward 52.
Even Chennai Corporation officials are baffled.This is news to me, said a senior officer of Royapuram zone.A senior corporation official said Nungambakkam,Greenways Road and Poes Garden have been given every civic amenity because of the VIP residents.We ensure that garbage is cleared twice a day,roads are without potholes and water supply is 24 hours, said a senior corporation official.
Officials suspect that it is the educated cry babies in the posh areas who take facilities for granted and expect more.Many places like Adyar,Alwarpet and T Nagar have resident activists who look for avenues to criticise us, said a former conservancy worker from Adyar zone.
So,what makes residents of ward 52 in Royapuram and ward 40 (Old Washermenpet) in Tondiarpet,which is the third best locality to live in,happier 
We have been focusing a lot of ward 40,which is dominated by slums, said a corporation official from Tondiarpet zone.We widened their roads,erected street lights and checked sewage overflow, he said.Maybe the residents were expressing their gratitude.This motivates us to work harder, he added.
Defending their activism is residents associations who say they have brought about major improvements in their areas.If residents ranked ward 181 in Adyar,where Kalakshetra Colony is located,the 17th best area to live in,it is because we have fought for two new parks,daily garbage clearance and re-laying of interior roads, says Shanthi Krishnan,vice-president of Kalakshetra Colony Welfare Association.
The presenting sponsor for Chennai Patrol is CREDAI-Chennai.