Real estate at a surreal price

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Bangalore: Five years back, Nirmal and his wife Reena decided to settle down in Bangalore. Although he had a degree in Hotel Management, Nirmal soon realised that the BPO sector was the place to be in.

It has just been three years into his new job and he has bought a flat in one of the prime locations in Bangalore.

Director, National Marketing Services, Nirmal PV, says, "I was paying a rent of around Rs 9000 for a two bedroom house. But I was looking at something wherein I could pay a little more and own the house. So, instead of the rent, I could pay the EMI."

"Maybe I'll look at another flat in a couple of years or if I get a good deal next year itself," he adds.

10,000 per square foot.

Rents have gone up from Rs.15 per sqft a month a few years ago to Rs.100 per square foot per month.

Marketing Director of Purvankara, Girish Purvankara, says, "IT has been our major customer base and over 60 per cent of the customers come from IT sector. This trend will continue. We have grown over 100 per cent in the last couple of years."

Analysts say that this demand for housing will further increase. Director, Software Technologies Park of India B V Naidu, says, "People want the Bangalore brand. In the last four months, nearly 64 new companies have come in. And out of these 64, 43 are foreign equity companies. What it indicates is that the people don't want to forget about the Bangalore brand."

This vibrant booming real estate market has also brought in a lot of NRI investors into Bangalore. Sri Raam, a software professional moved with his family to Bangalore two years back, after spending eight years in the US.

In fact, NRIs account for 20-30 per cent of business for real estate developers. And that number can increase upto 75 per cent for super premium properties.

Director, Citagus, Sriraam, says, "The only city that I wanted to come back to was Bangalore, mainly because of the weather and also because this is India's Silicon Valley."

Bangalore's population is expected to exceed 7 million by the year 2011. The IT and ITES boom has made the real estate business an extremely lucrative one.

NRIs, young professionals and software gurus are all anxious for a place in the Bangalore sun. But with house prices going the way they are, soon even sunshine might come with a price tag.