Chennai's unapproved plans and multi-crore real estate speculators

These are times when land suddenly appears covered not with the arid dust of the coromandel coast, but the glitter of gold.

Almost every page of The Hindu's Property Plus has giant advertisements promising 'nirvana' to the wealthy, in the form of gated communities and villas that have tranquil pathways that disappear into misty woodland. This idyllic promise further throws in chirping birds that will wake you up, storks and swans magically appearing in azure waterbodies sending you into a dream-like state. (As many are aware, these are all stock photo images of European and other first world countrysides).

What happened to all the slums, the open sewers such as the Cooum, the Buckingham canal, the Adyar, the Mambalam canal, the human excreta on the road, the felled trees, the blistering heat of the concrete cosmos, the autorickshaws without silencers, the careening MTC buses and the insane call taxi drivers, you wonder. Is this a dream or is this a scene from the virtual world of Second Life?

Buyer, beware. This is a paradise on not even high quality paper, but on newsprint. These vistas are like scenes on Microsoft's Windows Vista aero dreamscapes, floating ethereally on your TFT screens, but never tangible.

There are big names in the real estate advertisements - Hiranandani Upscale on Old Mahabalipuram Road (what else can the projects be called but Greenwood and Bridgewood?), Palm, which offers Rs.71 lakh-plus villas in Medavakkam, Puravankara's Purva Swanlake on OMR, and Sai Surya in Pallikaranai, Chennai's chosen spot for chemical and garbage dumping and burning.

It would be wise to see if these big names have a copy of the CMDA-approved plan available at their office, before forking out your saved / borrowed money. There are reports that many builders have their applications waiting in the dark and inscrutable corridors of the "regularisation"-friendly Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority as "negotiations" go on. As we all have seen, the CMDA is an oxymoronic body that has repeatedly dealt devastating blows to Chennai's quality of life through corrupt dealings with property developers and big money interests, example the T.Nagar shopping area.

Why suffer in a property meltdown later? Property buyers are discovering in the US that they were sold houses by unscrupulous builders at inflated rates and they are now unable to repay their loans due to the economic slowdown. They are now suing the developers. But in India, it is the money bags that rule. So why burn your fingers?

Here is an extract from a Wall Street Journal story today on this issue --

As Market Cools, Home Buyers Seek a Way Out
By Michael Corkery and Ruth Simon

In the latest fallout from the housing market's decline, disputes are breaking out between builders and buyers who signed contracts for new homes and condos when the market was hot -- and now want to get out of them.

Even as many of the new buildings are completed, buyers are filing lawsuits claiming they were duped into purchases they couldn't afford, or victimized through fraudulent investment schemes. Some are scrutinizing their contracts looking for loopholes, or searching out tiny flaws in finished homes that might allow them to back out without losing their deposits.

-- So don't fall for claims. Do verify.