House Hunting

Last Saturday, me along with a couple of my office colleagues decided to check out a few apartments in the Mira Rd area. I am looking to buy a house sometime next year in June-July and thought now would be a good time to commence searching. It will also give a good idea on the current market rates and what kind of deals to expect. We were initially looking at apartments which were in 8-10 year old buildings in anticipation that we would get a better deal, however, the places we saw were not really worth the price the owners were quoting. And the place which we did like, the amount of cash asked was too much. I had heard about the terms white and black payment while buying a house, this time experienced it first hand. This one place they were asking for INR 2 ,000,000 (20 lakhs) in cash, and I am thinking how is a salaried individual suppose to give this much amount straight upfront in cash. This very thought caused me a lot of discomfort.

After checking out apartments in old buildings, we checked out 2 upcoming constructions: Lodha Group and Man Opus. In Lodha, we checked out the Lodha Aqua which is a premium property and commands a premium rate. The 2 BHK apartment which we saw had split ACs fitted in all the rooms and everything from plumber, electrician etc. were just a phone call away.  The building had club house, swimming pool etc. all modern amenities. All of these only costing INR 10,800,000 (1 crore and 8 lakhs). Of course the apartment was huge approx. 1008 sq.ft., but still that’s quite a huge amount for a property in Mira Rd. which is on the outskirts of Mumbai. The next property which we checked out was Man Opus, which is under construction. The rates over there are also very high INR 6300 per sq.ft, so basically a 2 BHK will cost around INR 8,000,000 (80 lakhs) after taxes and everything. I did a quick math and realized to get one of these apartments I would have to get a loan of approx. INR 5,500,000 (55 lakhs) for like 30 years or something and pay approx. 55K as my monthly installment. After doing this math, I decided I am going to look further beyond Mumbai to identify a property which I can afford.

So at the end of a very productive day, I have decided to look at Thane Ghodbunder area to check out some properties and see if anything falls in budget. Lets see if something good comes up. 🙂