Good connectivity drawing end-users and investors

Hot Spot: Kondhwa, Pune

Kondhwa in south Pune is one of the city's developed residential areas and a fast-growing suburb. One of the major attractions is its proximity to Camp, the established retail and commercial node within the cantonment area. It has established traditional shopping areas such as MG Road (high street shopping line of prominent brands, as well as local retailers), Moledina Road and East Street (dotted with eateries and small format retail stores). It also has quite a few office buildings and hotels such as Central Park, Sagar Plaza and Aurora Towers.

As Kondhwa is linked to prominent activity magnets of the city by good road connectivity, this area and surrounding nodes such as Salunke Vihar, Lulla Nagar, NIBM Road and Mohammadawdi have emerged as prominent residential destinations for employees working in central areas such as Camp, Kalyaninagar and Hadapsar. Apart from the working population, this micromarket is also a favoured post-retirement residential destination for ex-servicemen. It has a considerable representation of active and retired population of the armed forces.

The residential sector in the southern part of Pune has been a favoured destination by the 'cosmopolitan' population of the city since the 1980s. In fact, property prices there were higher than in areas such as Kalyani Nagar and Viman Nagar in the east. However, the southern part of Pune eventually fell behind the eastern part during the property cycle between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Today, with advantages such as good access to the central areas of the city, vastly improved connectivity and a surge of infrastructure projects such as the eastern bypass, Kondhwa and other parts of southern Pune are once again drawing the interest of investors and end-users.

Kondhwa also benefits form the presence of quality educational institutes such as Vibgyor, Bishop's School and Delhi Public School, as well as hospitals such as Inamdar, Apollo and Ruby Hall in the vicinity. A combination of these factors make Kondhwa a viable residential property investment option.

The micromarket has projects by several prominent developers such as Clover Group, Brahma Group, Kumar Properties, Kumar Builders, Salarpuria Group and Sobha Group. The prevailing prices for apartments in the micro-market are in the range of Rs 4,500-5,500 a sq ft, depending on location, scale, size, amenities offered and brand name. Buyers and investors should carefully screen the project for water availability, as some projects in the area suffer from this issue.

The writer is managing director - Pune, JLL India