Chennai Economy thread

[Leo_r]

The entry of big builders from Bangalore/Delhi/Hyderabad has changed the pricing of Apartments abnormally. Long back,a local builder sold a three bed room flat as 1050 sq ft in Chennai ,17*12 Hall,10*12 Dining,12*11 Bedrooms,10*4.5 Balcony,11*4.5 Bathrooms,8*6 kitchen,8*3 store etc.. Recently. I checked up a premium offering in OMR,all those skyscrapers. The dimensions were similar to the old one but the area quoted is 1530 sq ft.

Nearly Rs 15 lakhs is emptied from your pocket as donation for common area.. The Sales Executive confirmed that all those Golden days are gone.

Greedy up market Builders have introduced their Big time cheating methods to locals also.

I would love to throw them along with those speculative buyers out and stick to our own measured steps...The idea of 'owning your own house' for deserving thrifty local buyers.

[ranga]

Originally Posted by TShyam

Yeah you are right. Its not that the developers didnt know the STPI will expire in 2010. It was a well known fact, but still they somehow hoped and anticipated that their supply will be taken up by the IT companies. Similarly lot of developers in Oragadam are building premium apartments hoping and anticipating demand will somehow come. The actual reasons are different but the pattern appears similar. That worries me. They may go wrong in anticipating the type of demand that is coming up.

Another factor is that when the dot-com bubble burst, the American Federal Reserve lowered the interest rate which created the housing bubble. Now to prevent the slow down due to housing bubble, they are printing too much easy money which I beleive will cause the next bubble. The worrying thing is that most of the easy money is finding its way into emerging markets. So I fear a emerging market stock market and property bubble may burst somewhere in the middle of this decade due to this easy money. We may see a rapid rise of our stock markets (to say 30K or 40K) and property prices in the next 5 years. And most of the money may find itself in places like the Oragadam belt. So people who invest in those properties may enjoy a good ride but they should be prepared to exit at an appropriate time.

Fear entangles chennaites with ease.There are much more developments around the International airports in Bangaluru and Hyderabad when compared to that around chennai particularly the Oragadam-Sriperumbudur belt and the people there are confident.Hyderabad is in the midst of political uncertainity owing to Telengana issue and the possibility of the state breaking up and yet many skyscrapers are coming up and new projects announced even when the city depends only on IT &ITes and to some extent BPO and pharma industies.When i was in chennai in the early eighties i missed the opportunity of investing in a plot near perungudi due to the usual doubting nature that we most tamils possess. (An acre was priced around Rs25000/- then) when my friends from kerala and A.P ,who were working along with me, bought as an investment immediately and they have reaped the benefits recently. Don't harbour doubts and invest with courage and be optimist.After a decade u won't get apts/flats in the happenning areas of chennai at the present cost.

[wlbkng]

Originally Posted by ranga

Fear entangles chennaites with ease.There are much more developments around the International airports in Bangaluru and Hyderabad when compared to that around chennai particularly the Oragadam-Sriperumbudur belt and the people there are confident.Hyderabad is in the midst of political uncertainity owing to Telengana issue and the possibility of the state breaking up and yet many skyscrapers are coming up and new projects announced even when the city depends only on IT &ITes and to some extent BPO and pharma industies.When i was in chennai in the early eighties i missed the opportunity of investing in a plot near perungudi due to the usual doubting nature that we most tamils possess. (An acre was priced around Rs25000/- then) when my friends from kerala and A.P ,who were working along with me, bought as an investment immediately and they have reaped the benefits recently. Don't harbour doubts and invest with courage and be optimist.After a decade u won't get apts/flats in the happenning areas of chennai at the present cost.

Yes I believe that it has something to do with our perception but I don't think it has something to do with our confidence. I personally think it is due to being over-cautious. We think hundred times before taking a risk and by the time we take decision, we would have lost the race. May be our past generation would have been like that but the present and future generation should be proactive and should be able to speculate about future correctly..

Slightly out of context, I am curious to know whether you guys think that this could be the reason why there is no top shot entrepreneurs from TN except a few.. (Many entrepreneurs are known to have come from Guj/MH/Rajasthan etc).

[Arasu]

There is an obvious connection to TN being less entrepreneurial. You cannot simply dismiss it. Tamils seem to be risk averse people. This is a trevesty when compared to Tamils of yonder who were willing to fight, wage wars, cross the seas to conduct business or wars.

Present day Tamils not only will not take the risks of entrepreneurship themselves, they will offer their wisdom against it to anyone who is willing to take the risk. They won't stop there. If someone started and failed, they would laugh at them and proclaim " I told you so".

[ezhilan81]

Very true Arasu...am a living example who is facing the brunt of venturing into Enterprenuership. The society around you just finds it so difficult to accept you as a normal person..lol, but touch wood I still haven't lost the perseverance of exploring even further

[kongutamizhan]

Not true. CBE is a city of enterprenuers

[dis.agree]

Originally Posted by kongutamizhan

Not true. CBE is a city of enterprenuers

agree there. and in many smaller cities & towns in tn. i think this perception is just a reflection of chennai forumers esp. technology guys where we hardly see such entrepreunership. and this has to do with plenty of job opportunities they have.

[kongutamizhan]

Yep!! Also add the Chettiar and Nadar communities from South to the list. While it's true that not many have invested on IT, we do have our share in IT enabled services. CBE is doing really well in the field of Medical transcription.

[kongutamizhan]

Originally Posted by Leo_r

The entry of big builders from Bangalore/Delhi/Hyderabad has changed the pricing of Apartments abnormally. Long back,a local builder sold a three bed room flat as 1050 sq ft in Chennai ,17*12 Hall,10*12 Dining,12*11 Bedrooms,10*4.5 Balcony,11*4.5 Bathrooms,8*6 kitchen,8*3 store etc..

Not sure which builder you are talking about. But not long back Chennai had one of the best builders around in the name of Alacrity. I would even dare to say they were the best in India.

Unfortunately in an industry and environment where unethical and unfair practices rule, they tried hard to stay straight forward and honest and paid for it Wish they survived. If they did that should have encouraged more people with business ethics to enter the field.

[ranga]

You are right.Alacrity was honest to the core but they could not survive in a society full of corruption.

[Arasu]

Citing one or two cities as examples, or one or two communities to say that TN folks are entrepreneurial is wrong. There is no denying that Gujaratis, Rajasthanis for example are much more entrepreneurship oriented thanTamils.

Even if you take IT, where supposedly penty of jobs are available, there is more entrepreneurship in other cities than in Chennai. TN folks are content with landing a job as opposed to creating one - this is not necessarily true of IT only but true in general. Places like Sivakasi, Tirupur, Coimbatore are exceptions to the rule rather than the norm. Even worse, TN graduates would wait for a decade to get a government job or a job in a nationalized bank rather than getting into a private sector job due to the comfort and job security of the former.

[darkprinz]

I dont find this in Chennai for sure .. i mean students longing for govt. jobs ... Their first choice is MNCs ....

[Indian Sun]

All of you have valid points. But that does not mean that TN people shouldn't be entrepreneurial in the days to come, going by past history. We can change the trend right now.

[Arasu]

Originally Posted by darkprinz

I dont find this in Chennai for sure .. i mean students longing for govt. jobs ... Their first choice is MNCs ....

Yea, I agree. My assessment is a decade old but may still be true of other towns of TN barring a few big ones.

[kannan infratech]

The edu system and cocooned atmosphere has spoiled a whole generation of people.

I feel that more uneducated people are ready to take the risk than educated mass. In the districts, Govt jobs used to be the final goal for most youth during our times. The goal now seems IT / ITES (BPO/Call Centre etc).

During our 25th Reunion at REC (NIT) Trichy, I chatted with the final year students and found only a few wanting to be an entrepreneur. (mostly those whose parents are in business). Either they want to go abroad for studies and stay there or join a MNC after final year or after doing MBA.

The fat salaries and lack of commitment seem to be the reason. Among the few, who tried, Very few survive and become a successful entrepreneur. In India, fighting the system and being successful in your business is so difficult and many fall by the wayside.

Social Security (Stable Job, Own House, Marriage) ranks above the urge to start one's own business.

I worked for 10 years, gained experience, earned enough to save before starting on my own. I provided 2 years need (money) to my wife and told her not to bother me for money during the next 2 years.

The struggle and the pain can not be explained in words. But today, I get a high while thinking about the tough path, I could negotiate for the past 15 years.

When you think about yourself as the PROVIDER for thousands of families, the pleasure it gives is immense. Helping the under previleged for Basic & Higher Education really gives a high level of satisfaction.

After some time, the momentum takes you along and we have to only steer along the right path.

[reswaran]

Please read ' A Better India A Better World' by Mr.Narayanamurthy. It will help to understand going behind entrepreneurship,

[Arasu]

Originally Posted by kannan infratech

The edu system and cocooned atmosphere has spoiled a whole generation of people.

I feel that more uneducated people are ready to take the risk than educated mass. In the districts, Govt jobs used to be the final goal for most youth during our times. The goal now seems IT / ITES (BPO/Call Centre etc).

During our 25th Reunion at REC (NIT) Trichy, I chatted with the final year students and found only a few wanting to be an entrepreneur. (mostly those whose parents are in business). Either they want to go abroad for studies and stay there or join a MNC after final year or after doing MBA.

The fat salaries and lack of commitment seem to be the reason. Among the few, who tried, Very few survive and become a successful entrepreneur. In India, fighting the system and being successful in your business is so difficult and many fall by the wayside.

Social Security (Stable Job, Own House, Marriage) ranks above the urge to start one's own business.

I worked for 10 years, gained experience, earned enough to save before starting on my own. I provided 2 years need (money) to my wife and told her not to bother me for money during the next 2 years.

The struggle and the pain can not be explained in words. But today, I get a high while thinking about the tough path, I could negotiate for the past 15 years.

When you think about yourself as the PROVIDER for thousands of families, the pleasure it gives is immense. Helping the under previleged for Basic & Higher Education really gives a high level of satisfaction.

After some time, the momentum takes you along and we have to only steer along the right path.

As rightly said by Kannan with his real life experience of being an entrepreneur, entrepreneurship in India is fraught with a lot of difficulties. Some of them being the beauractic maze that one has to navigate through successfully. It is a potential minefield and you may not cross it successfully.
Add to that factors like lawlessness everywhere, having to deal with political big-wigs (goondas, actually) and local rowdies. Our business folks always prefer to deal in black than white. The business environment should be such that it encourages hard-work and honesty rather than exploiting loo-holes in the law and favouring cheats and punishing the honest. This environment has to change drastically and quickly.

It will augur well for the society if the governments can clear up this mine-field and also provide fast processing of legal cases.

I would also put the blame on the education system which never raises questions 'why' and 'why not' but emphasises on memorising texts, formulas, etc and blindly quote them or apply them. The educational system also should provide real life exposure intead of just the class room lecture.

[wlbkng]

Yes..

The education system is also an important factor.. it should feed the idea of entrepreneurship to the younger blood right from primary school level.. the govt can add one lesson atleast in subjects like social science(civics) or even tamil/english subject.

Whilst this is one thing, the another reason i think is that there are no big inspirations like ambani, tata, birla, munjal or bajaj within our state. there are some entrepreneurs who built industrial powerhouses like tvs, murugappa group etc, but there is no one so inspiring like the ones above.. even i wanted to be an entrepreneur but as rightly discussed by friends above own house, bike/car, settled life were injected as fear due to family pressure.. i reckon this is the case for many ppl in our state. yet i havent given up the hope of becoming an entrepreneur.. may be i cud even take mr.kannan_infratech as an example as i started my career in usual way like other but 10 yrs down the lane i wud transform as an entrepreneur.. but for sure i will always encourage my child to be an entrepreneur in his/her future. our future generation is in our hands. we must not miss this opportunity atleast(may sound too ambitious/sentimental but i think this is reality)

hope somebody in this forum and from our state will become a top shot entrepreneur in future.. good luck guys

[Leo_r]

Originally Posted by kongutamizhan

Not sure which builder you are talking about. But not long back Chennai had one of the best builders around in the name of Alacrity. I would even dare to say they were the best in India.

Unfortunately in an industry and environment where unethical and unfair practices rule, they tried hard to stay straight forward and honest and paid for it Wish they survived. If they did that should have encouraged more people with business ethics to enter the field.

Maharashtra building plan based on carpet area only

Builders usually sell flats based on built-up area which include lift, balcony and staircase place.

"We are making it compulsory for builders to submit the building plan to BMC based on carpet area only. Also the registration would be done based on the carpet area," Minister of State for Housing, Sachin Ahir told PTI.

"However, the Government does not receive complaints about cheating and then it is difficult to take action against the builders," Ahir said.

Selling flats on the built-up only increases prices and makes houses unaffordable for common man. With the Government's initiatives the consumers would pay exact amount for the flats, he added.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/6845460.cms


TN Govt, should enact a similar law straight away.Guys please shoot E-mail's to CM's office.

[kongutamizhan]

Originally Posted by Leo_r

Maharashtra building plan based on carpet area only



http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/6845460.cms


TN Govt, should enact a similar law straight away.Guys please shoot E-mail's to CM's office.

Good initiative from Maha govt., Let's see if it helps common man. Builders lobby is too powerful.

Shooting email to TN CM's office will not work. Try paying an actress, take her along with you to his home and open this issue. And yeah let her open her mouth to bring this to his attention and you remain silent. That might work

(Even an out-of-market sappa figure might be able to help you better here compared to email).