PAY IN JUNE :o)

Hey Folks, hwzzit goin?? Crazy month it is...The Mumbai Indians kicked some ass yesterday when they suckered SRK's KKR...eh!! The heavy MAY rain showers...wow!!
Anyway back to our favourite real-estate project. I met a couple of folks at GPL today namely, Manish (the sales guy) and a very pleasent elderly gentleman by the name of Aggarwal (who manages the operations, or at least thats what I gathered). Manish was the one doing more of the talking, here are some take away from this meeting

1. Great news for those who were trying to arrange funds for the 3rd installment – the payment date is expected to be around June 10th. The rationale for this is that GPL would like to get done with the sample flat and have some excavation done for the benefit of those who are arranging funds via bank loans. The bank would definitely verify the status of the construction and if they don’t see development on the ground they may not release the funds. So you should expect your payment letters by 1st to 2nd week of June...

2. UPDATE on layout plan/design: One good news for us is that the carpet area of 2150 and 2190 sqft flats has been increased without any impact on the overall super area of the flat (which means better space utilization and they have added a small utility room in 2150 and 2190)

3. UPDATE on layout plan/design: The two 2bhk towers now are laid out parallel to each other as opposed to the previous layout plan as shown in the brochure

4. UPDATE on layout plan/design: The swimming pool is very differently laid out in the new layout plan that is approved (and I think this looks better)

5. The sample flat is till under construction and they hope it’d be ready by end of this month or early next month (exactly as I predicted in my last post)

6. I was intrigued/concerned when I heard that Tower 8 and Tower 9 are reserved for Corporate and the specifications would be different (like no modular kitchen etc…which I don’t ever remember hearing earlier) and even on some further questioning I felt the answer was a little vague.

7. The sales are going very well and GPL is already beginning to re-sale even if investors are booking a Rs100-150/sqft profits. A large % of flats have been booked and therefore they don’t want to spend too much in advertising (which makes sense to me) and the cost of construction has significantly risen in the past few months. (I think it’s a good approach to conserve capital for use in construction)

8. A small bhumi pujan event will be organized prior to beginning excavation and we should expect an advertisement for that

9. The bungalows would be positioned as “premium’ and will be built on 400sqmtrs with approx 4000-5000sqft area and it’s likely that the branding/promotions and even brochures for these would be totally different. The price would be in the neighborhood of 3-3.5cr and investors in flats would have the option of switching over to bungalows if budget permits

10. The GPL website is getting updated too and I am eager to look at the updated version…I feel its too dated now

11. HDFC is still processing the loans. I know someone commented that BOB/public sec banks are better...and I agree but there is just a huge mind set of having a private sec bank funding a reality project (some sense of security - i don't know what caused this sterotype but it does exist)

12. Finally, Manish promised to send picture of new layout plans to me via email. I will update the blog with those as soon as I receive them…

Hope you all continue to find this update useful…I look forward to your comments, questions and hope to be able to provide some clarifications…keep the comments flying in and i'd like to hear which IPL team you are putting your money on as a winner!! I think its the underdogs "Rajasthan Royals"

~ vik

Allotments "MAY" take place shortly...

<May 12th, 2008; VIK update> : Got a call from GPL on 10th May informing that allotment begins during the week of 12th May...read the comments section for detail. Will update blog after my discussion with folks at GPL...

The "MAY" above reflects the Month "May", and not tentativeness because the allotments will begin very shortly!! Here is the latest

• Layout Plan Approval : I have heard this over and over again that the "layout plan approval" is the only thing that is pending but the grapevine has it that all approvals are NOW in place
• Allotment letters : Allottment letters may be dispatched by May 11th to all the flat buyers. Which means that you need to keep 10%of BSP + 25%PLC + 50%EDC + IDC equivalent of cash ready. Make the payments and get your allottment done
• Bank Loans : Just like me many of you are also tired of hearing that "we have submitted papers to HDFC bank" - the latest is that HDFC bank should approve the project in a week or so (and so many of us have heard this so many times, so many weeks before :o)..so lets just wait and watch)
• Sample Flat : Sample flat should be ready by end of this month (looking at the progress on the ground - I think it's safe to add a couple extra weeks before it's ready to entertain visitors. Once the sample flat is ready - I will create another section on this blog just get the bloggers feedback on the sample flat to check
• Advertisement: There also seems to be a plan to release some advertisement in this month (It makes sense to have an advertisement now that the Sample flat is getting ready - but my guess is that the advertisement will not come out till the sample flat is totally ready...to get more foot falls at the sample flat)
• Bhumi Poojan: Now that all the approvals are in place - I heard that GPL plans to do a bhoomi poojan (it'll be a nice touch if they send the inverstors/buyers an invite to attend the same)...

So thats the latest and the greatest...from my side.

~vik