Properties, Homes & more

As more and more people flock to metropolis (for whatever reasons), the stress on its housing resources is multiplying and the direct impact is on accommodation. A significant part of our income in any metropolis is spent on the living: house rent if you’re living on rent or maintenance if you own a home. Typically many people tend to live on rent and this tendency has given rise to a whole new business: renting out. A few years back, renting out was not a big deal. You just need to decide on the locality and the budget you can afford and you will easily get a nice house. However things have changed after incidences of terrorist attacks.

I would not go in depth about the terrorism, but investigations revealed that these terrorists have rented out places in the metropolis and managed to get unnoticed. Hence, it was recommended that everyone who wants to rent a property must undergo police verification. Well, this is a good move, but not always practical. The most important question is: how would you find good people to rent your property out? I am sure you will not simply rent it out to anyone. After all, it’s YOUR home and you’d like it to remain as lovely as you’d keep it yourself.

Hence, it is quite important to find out good people to give your house on rent. That’s where GoRenter will help you out. Once you subscribe by paying a small fee and specifying details of your property and what type of people you’re looking for and the budget, GoRenter will match with its extensive database and provide you notifications whenever a suitable match is found. It also acts as a middle-man in sorting out differences, if any, between the two parties. It will also take care of the police formalities and will ensure that the rent agreement and other procedures are done hassle-free. True that this is, for the time being, limited to Arizona Property Management, I am sure it will soon expand to other locations. If you would recollect, GoRenter was in a big mess earlier with lot of unresolved disputes between previous owner and customers. However, it has now undergone lot of restructuring and the new management is quite promising, determined, focused, and supportive. I have gone through GoRenter.com Reviews and I must say that it offers good quality service at very affordable rates. I have not faced any issues / disputes with them and am sure no one will. If you’re looking for Homes for rent in Arizona, GoRenter is THE place. If I have to say my opinion, just go for it…

Connecting Thane to Mumbai, Mulund has become a hotspot for property buyers, due to its all-round development. Located on the central line, Mulund is a developing suburb between Bhandup and Thane. During the ’60s, Mulund was a small settlement with very little population, which mostly consisted of middleclass families, as companies like Johnson & Johnson, Gabriel, Richardson and Cruddas established in Mulund. Mulund today has become a multi-linguistic suburb.

Mulund is divided into two parts - Mulund West and Mulund East. The West is comparatively more developed than the East. Mulund underwent a drastic change after 1990, as builders took notice of its potential and started floating new constructions. Nirmal Lifestyles came up with its first project Mayur Pankh in the year 1976-77 and gradually progressed with prestigious projects like Nirmal Lifestyle and City of Joy that completely changed the landscape of Mulund.

Mulund wins the cake in terms of infrastructure too, as it is centrally located and has easy access to Mumbai, Thane and even Navi Mumbai. Road connectivity through vast network of BEST buses and frequent train availability has benefited Mulund.

Fortunately, Mulund is blessed with greenery due to places like Yogi hills and Cyprus. A morning walk amidst the greens rejuvenates Mulund residents. The suburb is strategically planned, fulfilling the requirements of modern-day living. Looking at the phenomenal growth, some of the best educational institutes like Lokmanya Tilak English High School, St Pius, St Mary’s, Holy Angels have come up in the past few decades. Mulund boasts of good colleges like V. G. Vaze College, Vani Vidyalaya and Mulund College of Commerce.

Hospitals like ESIS, Municipal hospital and private hospitals like Dhanvantari, Upasani, Saidhan Hospital and high-end hospital like Wockhardt cater to medical needs. Mulund has religious places like Ambaji Dham, Santoshi Mata Mandir, Jain temple, to name a few. For entertainment purposes, Mulund has single screen theatres like Jai Ganesh, Mehul and multiplexes like R-Adlabs, PVR Cinema. Malls have become the Mecca for the cinegoers in Mulund. L.B.S Marg in Mulund can be called as the hub of malls, with huge malls like Nirmal Lifestyles and Runwal Mall. From restaurants like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut to trademark hotels like Vishwa Bharati, Vishwa Mahal, Mulund has everything to offer. Mulund also has some well-known clubs like the Rotary Club of Mulund.

The property market in Mulund is flourishing with ever growing malls and its connectivity. Recently, property  rates in Mulund range between Rs. 5,000 to 7,000 per. sqft. A number of huge residential and commercial projects are coming up. With the kind of construction and developments coming its way, Mulund surely looks to be the destination for future.

At around 5:30am on June 30, an unoccupied building still under construction at Palm Beach Road in the New Mumbai district of Mumbai city Shanghai and not Sanpada (Please read UPDATE published below) toppled over. One worker was killed. According to information, a 70 meter section of the flood prevention wall in nearby Creek Stream which connects with Arabian Sea collapsed that may have something to do with this building collapse.

God bless all who have and are suffering in this accident…

Please note that I have received this information through a mail, so I am not responsible if this information is incorrect. If you have latest update on this, please post it here and I would certainly publish it. Let’s spread only the right information.

UPDATE: I have received many comments from alert readers who have pointed out that this information is partly correct. This accident had really took place, but in Shanghai (check this BBC link) and NOT in Sanpada as reported by me. I apologize for the wrong information I had published. I am against spreading any rumours so I am taking all precautions to avoid such things to happen, and also upading my post. Thanks again to my alert readers.

The much awaited garden on top of Parsik Hill in Belapur (Navi Mumbai) will finally be thrown open to the public on Wednesday, June 17. This garden is spread across a generous 4,000-sq mt expanse built on top of a new water reservoir on the hill.  It will be inaugurated by NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Offering a breathtaking panoramic view of the entire satellite city, the garden is already being referred to as the ‘Hanging Gardens of Navi Mumbai’. With Navi Mumbai slowly becoming a concrete jungle, the garden is surely going be a welcome change. There are also planns to set up telescopes along the periphery of the garden.

According to the city engineer of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), Mohan Dagaonkar, the reservoir below the garden is part of the Kalamboli-Digha pipeline project, which was undertaken by the NMMC along with Pratibha Industries to ensure an uninterrupted supply of water to the city. This spot was chosen because it is one of the highest in the city. The water that will be brought here from Morbe Dam will be transported through the new pipes mostly by gravity, thus saving a lot of electricity. The water tank will handle nearly 32 million litres of water every day, and will supply the same to various parts of the city.

According to the developer of the garden, it will have drooping creepers and a waterfall, which will add to its beauty. Apart from the high vantage point, from where we will get a lovely view of the city, the garden will be useful for morning walkers and fitness buffs.

The government is working overtime to fulfil its promise of providing affordable, low-cost homes to low-income-groups (LIG) still seems to be a distant reality. Though the government and developers are working hard towards lowering housing costs, cost of the most important ingredient — material costs of construction — is just not coming down. Although the government, in an effort to rein in the prices of construction material, announced a service and excise tax cut on cement prices, they continue to remain high.

Land prices contribute towards the cost of any project in Mumbai but the construction cost is quite substantial too. The cost of RCC is a major component, 2/3 of the total cost of construction. Any rise in cement or steel prices directly impacts the end pricing. Some 15 years ago, the price of cement was around Rs 60 a bag, now it is Rs 270. This increase has been totally unjustified - and this is just one component. Steel prices have come down in the last few months, but those too were fluctuating on the higher side. These are those components that one simply cannot reduce or compromise with in any way during construction.

The ongoing price hikes of cement have hit the construction industry hard. It is no secret that cartelisation in the cement sector is keeping prices unnaturally high, they would prefer to reduce production rather than reduce prices. Other materials like bricks, steel, mortar, and machinery also play a major role. Transportation of the material too contributes 25-30% to the cost of the project, which must come down. One option to have control over prices is buy in bulk to take advantage of the material prices - but even in this case the quality parameters remain the same. It is too expensive to import cement from other countries due to depreciation of the rupee. It is strange when all other raw material prices have come down; cement prices have gone up. Thanks to this, the increase in cost of construction is up to 10%.

In order to help reduce prices effectively and encourage fair pricing the government needs to appoint a more powerful regulatory body to check the demand and supply of raw materials, completely ban export of cement, remove the countervailing tax completely to make import easy so that domestic prices remain under control and bring in more transparency in working of these systems.