Bangalore Real Estate prices - finally dropping

Finally some good news if you are in the home buying market! After a few months of stagnation the real estate market has started seeing activity. In the past few years with the economy booming, Apartment prices in Bangalore had reached the stratosphere. Now as a fallout of the global recession and ease in demand - prices are returning slowly down to earth.

Things are looking up for a new home buyer because of the following reasons.

• Builders like DLF, Shobha have slashed their prices by approx. 30% in select locations of Bangalore. This will have a cascading effect and may see all around price reduction. Buyers in the market for a 2BHK can now consider buying a 3BHK apartment.
  
  
• Government has cut the stamp duty to 6% from 8.48%. This will result in a saving of upto 80,000Rs on a 50 Lakh house.
  
  
• Home loan rates are also sliding down and the market is expecting further rate cuts. Most Public Sector Banks are providing home loan rates in the vicinity of 9.00% for a 20 Lakh loan.
  
  
• Prices of construction materials have decreased in the last one year.
  Cement price has reduced by 7%
  Brick price has reduced by 20%
  Gravel price has reduced by 20%
  Sand price has reduced by 27%
  Glass price has reduced by 12.5%
  Plywood has reduced by 10%

Now the question on every one's mind is will the rates go down further, or has it reached the bottom. However, it is time to pack a water bottle, wear a cap and go visit the Apartments and start looking for a good deal.

It is the Buyer's market in real estate now !

On a lighter note, this somehow reminds us the starting line of this 1971 Coca-cola TV commercial: "I'd like to buy the world a home, and furnish it with love... " :)

Sources : Times of India, Indian Express, BBMP website.

Disclaimer : While Apartment Adda makes every effort to provide up-to-date factual information, readers are encouraged to take decision based on further market information catering to their specific requirements.

The BBMP Property Tax Calculator is live!

As the SAS (Self Assessment Scheme) Property Tax in Bangalore can be payed from tomorrow (February 10), the Property Tax calculator of BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) is available for use from today.

The URL for the calculator is: http://164.100.80.124/rescal/

We just calculated the property tax for our zone, and found it very intuitive and simple to use. Thanks to BBMP for this effective tool!

Here is a nice article by Citizen Matters that gives a step by step guide for using the calculator:
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/786-bangalore-property-tax

And if you are interested in the logic behind the calculator, check this article (logic at the end of the article):
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/bengaluru/pay-property-tax-under-sas-feb.-10-354

For all other questions on Property Tax in Bangalore, please refer to this useful handbook published on the BBMP site: http://www.bmponline.org/propertytax/Hand%20Book.shtml
Especially useful is the Frequently Asked Questions on Bangalore Property Tax, which is part of this handbook.

Khata Transfer - What and How

All of us who have purchased an Apartment in Bangalore, know that Khata Transfer is an important to-do to complete the set of official property documents. Khata Transfer is also important for paying the property tax and avoid incurring any fine for negligence. This article tries to compile more knowledge about Khata transfer in the context of Apartment bought from the builder.

What is a Khata / Khatha?

A Khata is an account of assessment of a property, recording details about the property such as size, location, built up area and so on for the purpose of payment of property tax. It is also a kind of identification of the person who is primarily liable for payment of property tax. It is one of the required documents in case you require a building license, trade license or loan from banks or any other financial institutions. (courtesy: propmart.com)

What is the process of Khata transfer?

BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) publishes a Khata Transfer Quick Reference guide at this link:

A friend who has pursued the Khata Transfer process successfully in the month of Dec-2008, reports the below:

The Khata Application form and the Khata Application Acknowledgment form can be downloaded from this link. Alternately, it can be purchased for Rs.20/- from the Citizen Service Centers.

Below are the property documents which must be attached along with the filled application form:

(i) Notarized Sale Deed

(ii) Paid up Betterment/Improvement Charges Receipt (collect this from the builder)

(iii) Latest paid up Property Tax Receipt (it is possible that you have been paying property tax after registration of your flat. In this case, you need two receipts (a) the latest receipt paid by you (b) the last receipt paid by the builder before registration)

(iv) Encumbrance Certificate (get this from the place where Sale Deed Registration took place)

(v) Occupancy Certificate (collect this from the builder)

(vi) Conversion Certificate (collect this from the builder)

In the Khata Transfer Reference BBMP mandates document number (i) - (iii) to be attached to the application form. However, certain panchayat offices require rest of the documents as well. It is advised that you collect all of them so as to have a complete set of your property documents.

The official Admin fee to be paid is 2% of the Stamp Duty payable by DD in favour of Commissioner, BBMP.

After the application is submitted you need to wait till a Khata Transfer Order arrives. You are informed once the order arrives, after which you need to make the payment of the property tax due and apply for the Khata Certificate and the Khata Extract.

Officially, the whole process should take 20 working days.

Note: Please do provide your inputs if you find the process significantly changed or if this article can be enriched further.

Why Apartment Adda? Why not Orkut or Facebook?

Apartment Adda was talked about in bangaloreinc! Praveen Karoshi did a great job of covering all our features and the business model.

Praveen also raised a question regarding the positioning of Apartment Adda. Here is the question along with our response (also posted as a comment against the same post on bangaloreinc).


Why would anyone use Apartment Adda and not any other general networking site (e.g., Orkut)?

If you do not like reading long posts, here is a one line answer:

It is the same reason why a chef would use a dedicated knife like a Wusthof Classic or a Sabatier to cut his meat and not a multifunction pen-knife.

If you want more, read on!

Apartment communities have unique communication requirements, very different from general networking.

From the viewpoint of the Resident: The Apartment resident lives in harmony with his neighbours and pays for common maintenance. Many residential issues directly impacting him are decided jointly. To facilitate this joint decision making and info-sharing, a secure, private network is required.

As a simple example, if Orkut is used for residential networking, you may think many times before discussing sensitive topics such as "Our security guard was found sleeping yesterday night". :)

Since Apartment Adda gives the control of the network in the hands of the Association Committee of the Apartment complex, there is clear accountability of who is let in and who is not. The fields that Apartment Adda makes mandatory when a user tries to register, ensures that the Association committee can easily verify the residential status of the user.

All other features for the Apartment resident are simple, effective and fun to use.

From the viewpoint of the Association Committee/RWA: This is a cause very close to our heart.
Any Apartment resident who is also an active part of the Residents' Welfare Association (RWA) is a social reformer in his own right! He volunteers to dedicate his personal time and money (in terms of hidden costs such as mobile airtime) to ensure a smooth day to day residential maintenance as well as take bigger decisions to make the neighborhood better.

He is held accountable for common funds worth crores but does not have any dedicated tools to make his life simpler. Most of his time gets lost in running after maintenance fee defaulters and AMC (Annual Maintenance Contract) contacts.

Apartment Adda provides the Association with a maintenance fee tracker that can automatically calculate dues, track receivables as well as inform defaulters via the online noticeboard, email or sms. Other features such as the Issue Tracker, Admin Forum and Maintenance contacts gives them an online shared workspace so that residential issues can be resolved, without having to wait for the next committee meeting.

For more information on Apartment Adda, please do get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you.

New features and Oasis Breeze goes live!

Apartment Adda is a month old now! It is hardly a milestone when we compare ourselves against business giants who have seen centuries go past while they strive incessantly to serve their customers.. But then, you cannot blame the first-time-parents of a newborn for cutting a cake for every month that their baby survives and grows.. :)

So, what did Apartment Adda do in the past month. We added new features (the Adda Profile, Batch upload of residents database, Apartment Complex Income and Expense trackers and an improvised Poll), we demonstrated Apartment Adda to interested Association committees and spoke to many apartment residents who are excited about using Apartment Adda.

Oasis Breeze, our founding Adda, went live a few weeks back. It also happens to be our home and a neighbourhood full of enthusiasm and life. Of a total of 165 flats, 163 residents are already online on the Oasis Breeze Adda. We, at Apartment Adda, wish Oasis Breeze all the best with building a great neighbourhood together!

That's all from us as of now.. As always, do write in!

Launching Apartment Adda

Hello World !!

We are happy to announce the launch of ApartmentAdda.com - an online communication and management portal built for apartment communities. You can find more about Apartment Adda - our services, features at our site - ApartmentAdda.com