From Worli to Whitefield for real estate

Mumbai-based television professional Jayesh Muzumdar came visiting Bangalore to meet relatives a year ago, and ended up spontaneously buying a 2BHK apartment on the airport road. Today, the apartment in a Purvankara project has appreciated by over 30 per cent – from Rs15 lakh to Rs20 lakh. “That kind of amount would not even make up the down payment component for an apartment in Mumbai. The rates in Bangalore are relatively so low that I did not even have to take a loan,” says Muzumdar.

Another Mumbaikar, Rajesh Rao, purchased a 1000-square-foot apartment in Whitefield for Rs45 lakh earlier this year, and is now earning a monthly rent of Rs15,000 on it. “Compared to Mumbai, Bangalore has much higher demand for rental apartments,” says Rao, adding that for the same rent in Mumbai, he would have had to invest at least twice the amount for an apartment in Mumbai’s suburbs.

For Mumbaikars, who face a starting rate of Rs10,000 per square foot even in the far-flung suburbs of their metropolis, Bangalore’s realty rates offer an easier entry point. Even prominent upcoming areas like Hosur Road, Whitefield, Tumkur Road, Kanakapura Road and Mysore Road have projects priced between Rs2500 and Rs4500 per square foot. “A good percentage of buyers in my Bangalore projects are investors from Mumbai, and even Pune,” says Sunil Mantri, Chairman, Mantri Housing, whose nine projects are in different stages of execution in Bangalore.

“Bangalore's weather and is also a pull factor for individual investors from Mumbai, who are keeping the option open of eventually settling down here,” says Mantri. While Mumbai’s residential realty market has been stagnating for the past one year, Bangalore has witnessed good activity — and upward movement of prices — thanks partly to investors from outside the city.

“While the short-term economic inhibitors currently at play across the country have definitely had their effect on buyers’ sentiments, Bangalore’s residential market is still one of the most resilient from a long haul perspective,” says Karun Varma, managing director for Bangalore & Kochi, Jones Lang LaSalle India, adding that most of the transactions are in the price band of Rs3000 to Rs7500 per square foot.