Benefits from good connectivity with other suburbs, airport

Hot Spot: Chromepet, Chennai

Chromepet is an emerging suburb in the southern region of Chennai, located about 20 kilometres from the main city. Chromepet's claim to fame on the Chennai real estate map is its central location with great connectivity. Recent reports number Chromepet among the city's top 10 preferred residential destinations. Importantly, Chromepet also benefits from the influence of IT/ITeS-triggered demand in the adjoining areas.

Its central placement has been a great boon for this suburb. Situated on the GST Road, Chromepet enjoys ready access to the established adjoining areas of Tambaram and Pallavaram. The international airport is only four kilometres from this locality, which also has its own railway station to connect to other prominent areas.

The Pallavaram-Perungudi bypass provides even further inter-city connectivity, and the flyover connecting to Chennai's famous Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), where former President of India, A P J Kalam, studied, is in the vicinity. In other words, Chromepet has all the hallmarks of a powerful residential property demand magnet, and this has been borne out by sales charts in this region. Naturally, this makes it an investment hotbed.

With infrastructure remaining the primary lodestone, Chromepet's fortunes are assured for a long time to come. The southern region of Chennai is seeing rapid infrastructure development, and many broad highways have been opened to add to the area's connectivity formula.

Chromepet boasts of numerous residential districts such as Nagappa Nagar, Lakshmipuram, Ranga Nagar and Gandhi Nagar. These all derive the benefits of good infrastructure and facilities such as hospitals, quality schools and colleges. Also, Chromepet is an extremely busy hub of high street retail and business activity of every description. The locality hosts a myriad of stores where daily household requirements are readily available. The numerous options for shopping and entertainment in the vicinity add to Chromepet's attractiveness as a residential destination of choice.

With prices ranging from Rs 4,500-5,100 per sq ft and annualised appreciation in property rates to the tune of 10-15 per cent, Chromepet has demand coming in primarily from the IT workforce employed in Thoraipakkam and OMR. Considering the overall real estate trends and with the rapid development taking place along the GST-OMR corridor, Chromepet has notable growth potential as an attractive destination for investment over the next few years.

The writer is head, residential services (Chennai) JLL India