House Hunting

This weekend we set a new record -- the largest number of houses checked in two days.

We had started at Sector-22 in Dwarka. This is at the far end of the new township, an area where the Metro is yet to reach. Here you have large swathes of land that have been earmarked for various ambitious projects - a new Inter-State Bus Terminal, A Metro Terminus, an International Convention Centre by DLF (Sec-24), a new diplomatic enclave (Sec.), etc.,


We visited three apartment complexes - Vasudhara, JP Society, Guru Ram Das Apartments. All these looked fully completed but, strangely, there was nobody around except for a couple of bored guards.

It turned out that more than 50 building-societies are under investigation by the CBI for a range of illegal activities. A former Registrar of Coop Societies (Mr. Diwakar) was under detention for selling away plots to unauthorized builders -- a scam worth Rs.3000 Cr; In JP society, housing units had been sold to multiple buyers; in Kailash Apts., the original allotees were locked in a legal battle with folks who had purchased the property on a "Power of Attorney"; another builder in Sec-22 had constructed extra blocks in an area earmarked for a community park.

Dwarka is a mess waiting to be sorted out. Maybe we should be looking elsewhere...

NOIDA (27 October 2007)

• 3BDRs are going for 50-65L these days in Sectors 50, 51, 105 and 82

• In UP, houses are sold only on as Leasehold properties for a period of 99 years. Transfer of property is possible only after it has been formally registered in a persons name. It is not enough if a new has been 'alloted' to a person. He has to have it registered for any further transactions.
• Noida Development Authority (NDA) has built HIG flats in Sectors 61, 82 and 105. These are low-rise apartments but have no power back-up, club, landscaped surroundings or swimming pools that are de rigueur in most of the new private apartment complexes.
• Brokers hide as much as they reveal: They usually charge 2% of the total transaction cost (excluding, perhaps, the registration costs). Nearly all of them are a picture of earnest sincerity. They claim to have your own interest uppermost on their minds. But they do not tell you many things upfront. So the questions to ask are:

* Are they registered with the government authorities?
* Are they selling properties that carry proper registration papers?
* How much does the seller want in cheque (bank loan) and cash (aka 'black money')?
* Is he picking up something from the Net and rehashing it for you (like Sandeep Goel did for the 3F propoerty at Sector-105?)
* How much is the earnest money required by the seller to hold the property in your name ill the registration papers are finalised?