
Porur lies 18 km to the south west of Chennai on the Guindy Poonamalee Road which leads to the Chennai-Bangalore highway. Technically, this suburb is part of the Thiruvallur district. Today, despite the recent water logging and flooding, Porur has been a favourite with home buyers mainly because it has emerged as a major hub for Information Technology (IT) companies.
There are three IT special economic zones (SEZs) in Porur, namely the TCG IT Park which, according to reports, might be on the block, Jayanth Tech Park and DLF IT Park. There are a large number of young professionals working in this suburb, so investing in a house either for own use or for rental would be a good decision. As per data available with IndiaProperty.com, the going rate for apartments in this locality has gone up by 6% between January and March 2016 when compared to the previous quarter. It stood at INR 5300 psqft.
Besides IT, Porur is also well known for two educational institutions; namely Ramchandra Medical College and Meenakshi Ammal Dental College which are also located in Porur. These two institutions attract a large number of patients who look for places to rent out. There are also the doctors and students who would like to rent places.
The locality is also well connected by road to the rest of the city. Once the Porur flyover becomes a reality, the traffic congestion which is a bugbear to the residents will ease and property prices are likely to go up again.
In the recent years, there has been a migration of people opting to live in the peripheries of the city. So areas like Porur, Perungudi, Vandalur and so on have become popular. The main reason for this is improved road and rail connectivity which reduces travel time. The second and less perceptible reason is the high disposable incomes of double income earning couples who can invest in cars, in most cases for both partners, which negates the dependency on public transport. And finally and most importantly the central business districts have shifted from the once revered Anna Salai to the very outskirts where people now opt to live.
Similar to real estate trends in other parts of the country, the demand is mainly for affordable housing units – in the range of INR 35 lakh to INR 60 lakh. People are also looking for social infrastructure by way of schools, hospitals, restaurants, theatres and shopping in the vicinity. The customers are also wary of investing in projects which don’t have the approvals or are embroiled in law suits.
Research shows that around 28,000 to 30,000 housing units are bought every year. Most of the sales have been near the IT hubs on the OMR. So it is an end-user market where people buy houses to live in, unlike Mumbai or the Delhi NCR where people were buying as an investment; often when a project is launched and then selling it when the project is completed. This customer behavior was evident when the market was in a boom period. However, when the economy slowed down many investors found that the money was all tied up. Even when the houses come back into the market in Chennai, it would be after a period of five to seven years.
The prices of property have largely stayed stable in Chennai. One of the major trends in Chennai has been the high square feet cost within city limits, especially in the older parts of the city such as Adyar, Nugambakkam, Chetpet, Egmore to name a few areas. The attraction of the home buyers for these areas is only for the pin codes. The buyers don’t look for swimming pools, gyms or club houses within the complex. The reason could be that well established clubs and gyms are around the corner where memberships would be had if one has the money for it.