Thursday, August 28, 2008

Sample Flat, Non payment of 3rd, and getting to know each other

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Sample Flat : GPL plans to launch the Sample flat on 5th Oct - during the navratra period and plan to have a lauch party on 4th Oct (I may be a couple of days off but this is what I gather). I am not sure if I am going to be in town, but if I am I will not miss that get-together. I think that will be a great opportunity for some of us to meet in person and share our perspectives, thoughts or concerns.

Pictures Courtesy - Amitabh Sagar (blogger and and end user). Amitabh thanks so much for these pics.


Non Payment of 3rd installment : GPL is sending out reminders with interest due for those who haven't made the 3rd installment.

Getting to know each other : I have this crazy thought and let me know what you guys feel. I know each one of us is busy, travels a lot or based in a location other than NCR. So I was thinking if it'd make sense for us to organize a get-together at a common location (Gurgaon) and catch up on coffee or a beer (obviously I am not hosting it :) it's gotta be self funded)...let me know what you all think and we can work this out...

Thanks. As always appreciate your participation

~Vik

PS - I still haven't gotten a chance to see the site, if any one of you has feel free to send me pics that I can upload and/or leave comments with the most current status.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Statistics - Copycat blog - Independance day


Looks like everyone has been quite busy scratching their heads around the flat buyer agreement. After careful analysis I signed and sumbitted mine too. Anyway I am gonna keep this posting short and talk about somethings that may be useful or not that useful to you...


Statistics
- I did some analysis and looks like 60-70 Eden heights residents are frequenting and participating in this blog. I am happy and thankful for those who are making this forum interactive and helping us build the eden heights community much before it comes to existance...

Copycat blog
- Check out http://newtownheights.blogspot.com/ - see something similar .. :) actually very similar and I promise I am not hosting that site.... but no points for guessing where the blogger got the idea from :). Anyway - I am glad to see end users coming together in such forums.

Finally - Independance day..
- I felt really proud when I gathered that India finally got a gold at the olympics. Awesome!! So wishing all of you a very happy independance day...


Sunday, August 3, 2008

Whats the latest?

Look at the opinion poll (on the left) - there is a lot of optimism that the project will be delivered in 2011, I wish I felt that optimistic about getting the possession in 2011...my selection was 2012.

Anyway, Hello again!! and hope you guys have been doing ok, got your loans secured, signed the buyer-seller agreement etc...and one cant miss all the action happening in the 70 sometihng sectors of gurgaon

Sec 70-A - Pal Aquapolis (high end apartments)
Sec 70 - Unitech Commericial and some residential complexes
Sec 74 - DLF commercial and some residential
Sec 78 - another large residential complex

and on top of that BS. Hooda has finalized the infrastructure development plan for the Gurgaon master plan - some of the salient features are
--> Horticulture work across gurgaon
--> better electricity and water supply
--> better infrastructure
--> initiate development of southern periphery (the one that goes in front of Eden heights) and northern periphery road

Anyway - I met Sandeep Gupta mid of last month and we spent a good amout of time taking about the project and had some candid conversations. And here are some take aways

Electricy - approx 3KVA, 6KVA and 7KVA will be dedicated for 2,3 and 4 bhk respectively and there will be a lumpsome payment we will need to make for the electrical infrastructure
--> for power back up
--> for DHBVN

my guess is you should park some cash aside for this.

Loans - Sandeep confirmed that HDFC, ICICI etc started dispensing home loans for the project

Sample Flat - Agreed that it took them longer to complete the sample flat. They changed the designers and made some tweeks to the design too but hope to complete it by Aug ( i still think it will spill over to sep)

Target completion date - early 2012...

Let me know if you have specific questions - there are a lot of things we discussed but i don't want to fill this page with a lot of text..happy to answer.

Enjoy the August!!!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

GPL - Flat Buyer Agreement

<< Take the new poll on the left

>> Sandeep Gupta (GPL) and I spent about 90 mins yesterday (19th july) at his office and he actually opened up this blog from his "favourites links" :) and we went thru each of the clauses I listed below. In the next couple of days I will update the blog with things I found out in our discussion. Thanks

Here are some things that stick out to me in the flat buyer agreement and may mean significant additional payment...

Clause 4(a) - Electricity charges - Deposit for bulk electricity and there is no mention of how much KVA will be allocated to each flat

Clause 5 - Aren't luxurious apartments expected to come with fire-fighting facility - I haven't seen these being mentioned in many other Flat buyer agreements?

Clause 6 - I am not sure I understand it this means payment for purchase and installation of genset for power backup too... eden heights was always promoted as a apartment that will come with 24x7 100% power backup.

Clause 7 - LPG - while this is good to have and I think I did hear mention of this at the time of registration.

Clause 10 - 20% is the earnest money??? WOW this is a lot!!

Clause 13 (a) - "Flat allotee may obtain finance from any financial institution..." there doesn't seem to be many options - considering that none of the pvt sector banks are funding this project yet

Clause 19 (a) - 3.5 years form the date of commencement of construction of the tower - THIS IS CRAZY...I cant imagine any tower construction begining by Jan 09 - add 3.5 yrs to that 2013 looks like the best case scenario for possession. Whereas we all have been told 3 years since the time of registration or booking i.e NOV 2007..

Clause 20 - Buyer compensation Rs 2 psqft - is perhaps the lowest any builder offered- consider thiis we will be entitled to Rs 2psqft in 2013 i.e Rs 4000 per month as compensation for delay - imagine the rent you will be paying in 2013 if you are paying 15000 today?


pls feel free to add other things you observed...

Friday, July 4, 2008

Sample Flat / PLC / Market sentiments & Eden Heights





Sample Flat
Probably it was my jet lag that was making me act a little paranoid but despite trying to catch up on the time difference I decided navigate the poor roads of Gurgaon to the non descript Badshapur village, to the GPL site. I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the progress of sample flat...it didn't look much different to me then what I had seen it a few months back (just that the roof was coming and the exterior walls had a cement coating to it)...so anyone who tells you that the Sample flat will be ready in July is NOT giving you the accurate pics. I don't think it'll be ready until end of August or early Sep. Which makes me wonder if the project is running behind schedule ... nonetheess good thing is that the work is progress
PLC
A lot has been said about PLC and looks like we all realize that it's probably a way for builders to make more money. I was amused that CORNER FACING had a PLC to it...soon we will probably have road facing, mountain facing - even if it is 10 mile away :), Neighbor flat facing haha :)...sky is the limit - PLC really made sense if it was applicable to pool facing or sea facing (in Mumbai)..., I am not sure what builders will offer us If we ask them for a flat without PLC :0).
EDC/IDC
my letter says that EDC/IDC is 200psft - not sure if it is more or less? Any thoughts??
Finally - Market sentiments
Given that the market is seeing a severe downtrend (real estate bigges like Unitech, DLF etc have lost close to 50% in market cap...)...(OMG!!) and inflation touching 12% (WTH!!! ..which is unimaginable) and home loans (12% - 14% - what the f***)...makes me wonder what impact all of this is having on GPL promoters...and I hope that they don't compromize on the quality to battle the market factors and leave the customers (us!!) short-changed!!


Anyway here are some pics of 4th July 08