Flat culture picking up in city, nearby areas

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, December 18

Flat culture, which was almost an alien concept in the city and its periphery till a few years ago, is finally taking roots in the region with end users and investors taking fancy to independent flats and floors.

Gone are the days when end users and investors scouted for freehold property for living or for investment purposes. With thousands of housing societies such as Jalandhar Heights, Hamilton Mayfair Residency, Palm Royale, Silver Heights, Bellevue Greens Apartment and Silver Oak Apartments coming up in the city, these seem to have upstaged the freehold property in the realty market.

Besides, facilities such as 24x7 security, green buildings, open gym, swimming pool, club house, gas pipelines, modular kitchens, wooden floorings and semi-furnished apartments are the new fad among the end users.

AGI Private Limited, which is coming up with a 125-acre project, ‘Urbana’, on the 66-ft Shahpur road, has offered modular kitchens, three-tier security system and piped gas supply for its apartments.

“With real estate prices having increased manifold and large companies venturing into the field, it has become critical for builders here to offer facilities that make them stand out,” says Sukhdev Singh, managing director of the firm.

“In our case, besides the required norms and safety, the complex would be equipped with a shopping arcade, an ATM, a hospital and restaurants, which would be managed by us and not outsiders so that there is no compromise on quality,” he said.

At present, there are over 1,000 families living in our Jalandhar Heights apartments and over 500 families will be taking possession by the next year, he added.

He said our company had planned to come up with independent villas and pent houses that would have all facilities, including swimming pool, home theatre, basket ball court. The villas will be built on a 25- marla areas.

Anil Chopra, MD of PPS Infrastructure Limited, said: “We are catering to all segments of buyers, including the upper middle class, by offering high-quality specifications. A single professional has an option to go in for a 1-BHK flat that ranges between Rs 15 to Rs 20 lakh. For families we have 2, 3 and 4 BHK flats available at prices starting from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 65 lakh.

Though until 2016 the demand for flats was less, in the past two years, residents are preferring the same.

The 3 BHK and 4-BHK flats, which we sold between Rs 25 to Rs 35 lakh in 2015, now cost Rs 55 lakh,”

he added.

Though these big private companies such as AGI, Hamilton Group among others are being preferred by the investors and end users, the super deluxe flat schemes launched by PUDA and the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) have miserably failed to attract customers.

Allottees of the Bibi Bhani Complex apartments of the JIT have complained about the quality of the flats and even after receiving a full payment, the JIT has failed to deliver the possession of the flats which was supposed to be given in 2012, said Darshan Singh Ahuja, an allottee.

Employment opportunities

As it requires a large number of manpower to run a society, the flat culture has opened new doors of employment for retired personnel, educated youth and also for the illiterate.

In a single society, over 2,000 persons are employed.

Sukhdev Singh, MD, AGI, said: “We have at present 2,500 employees these include educated youth who are looking after accounts, marketing and other businesses of the firm. Besides, 500-600 persons are hired for maintaining cleanliness, gardens, etc.”