So some couple of months ago we, me and wife, decided to get a house of our own in Mumbai. If you are following the realty market in Mumbai, buying a house in Mumbai, with the right price, right views, right locality etc. is like going on wild goose chase. Looking at the prices of the apartments that are listed, makes me wonder – there is way too much money with a lot of people and only we seem don’t seem to have enough. A lot of places where we have seen the apartments, builders and agents have asked us “how much black (cash) we would be paying”? I look at them and wonder – do they think two working professionals with normal jobs would have 10-15 lakh rupees in cash? At such times, our normal answer is we would not prefer to pay anything in cash. However, the cost of flats in Mumbai has seriously sky rocketed. While searching, we realized that there is a concept of carpet area – what is the usable space in the house, and sale able area – includes usable space in the house, plus lobby space in the building, garden etc. and the builders actually charge as per the sale able area. The difference between sale able area and carpet area is usually between 35% to 40%. Basically the cost of the flat increases by 40%. Builders also charge floor rise usually between range of Rs. 35 to Rs. 50 – i.e. every increase in the floor rise would cost Rs. 50 per sq. feet more.
In far suburbs of Mumbai like Borivali, Kandivali, a 1 Bed Room Hall Kitchen (BHK) would easily cost around 65 to 70 lakhs and a 2 bhk could cost anywhere from 80 lakhs to 1.5 crore. We decided to check out areas like Vasai and Virar which are farther north and the rates there are much lower. 1 BHK in Vasai & Virar would cost around 27 lakhs, while a 2 BHK would cost around 35-40 lakhs max. However, the size of the rooms that we saw left lot to be desired. The apartments were match box sized. Hardly any space to have any furniture. Living in an apartment where we have windows on 3 sides and no building surrounding us with super spacious rooms, moving into such rooms was simply not acceptable to us.
Mumbai has everything for everyone, one just needs to keep searching and find it. So far we have not been able to find something that fits what we are looking for. But the chase is still on and the adventure continues. Mumbai – I know will not disappoint me.
My thoughts...My story 