Prestige group brings its new super luxury Residential Project- Prestige White Meadows in Whitefield. Prestige White Meadows is an exclusive community offering exclusive ultra luxury homes. Prestige White Meadows comprises 214 Sky Villas in four high rise towers of upto 27 floors and 66 independent Bungalows set in scenic grounds.
Prestige White Meadows in Whitefield offers exclusive ultra luxury homes for the very upper crust. The architectural design exploits the topography and scenic potential of the site locating the towers on the periphery and the independent bungalows on the inner side.
Prestige White Meadows is situated on a gentle hillock in Whitefield,Bangalore’s much sought after suburb. The Independent Bungalows are situated on stepped terraces defining the gradual activity of Prestige White Meadows with areas ranging from 5576 5ft. – 6219 5ft. The Independent Bungalows are 3 storied edifices set in scenic streetscapes.
The high rise towers are located on the flatter terrain along its periphery.The Residential Towers offer a choice of Single Level Units, Duplex, Triplex and Penthouses with areas ranging between 6652 – 12066 Sft. Prestige White Meadows also pampers its residents with a fully accoutered clubhouse, which comes with every amenity that is de rigueur with a lifestyle of consummate luxury.
Altogether painting a picture of a blissfully luxurious neighborhood that reposes in unquestioned majesty. Homes are designed as ‘Villas in the Sky’, thus marrying the twin benefits of undisturbed privacy and high rise splendor. The landscape at Prestige White Meadows is dense and lush with a variety of foliage including shade trees, all serving to cool the air and keep it pristine.
According to realtors who have been exclusively marketing resale properties, the demand for resale apartments in and around city areas has been gaining momentum. Larger unit size, proximity to schools and hospitals and work areas are some of the criteria that tilt the balance in favor of resale apartments.At the same time prices for resale units in city areas have also gone up by 50 per cent in a span of two years.
The demand for resale units is high particularly in areas like Lavelle road, Richmond road and Cunningham road, says Rebekka Ninan of RNU Partnership. There are specific locations where resale market is quite active like Koramangala, Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Malleshwaram and Ulsoor, according to property consultants.
The new units cost anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 per sqft in CBD areas. The prices for resale units vary from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 per sqft depending on the age of the building, quality, specification and type of amenities available.
The demand is more for CBD areas as proximity to a range of facilities is what nudges them to opt for resale units. The demand for home loans for resale units has also picked up if the quantum of enquiries received by various housing finance institutions is any indication. At the same time not all companies provide home loans for resale units beyond 15 years.
Bringing relief to Bangalore’s property owners, BBMP had extended the last date for payment of property tax – in full and for the first half year – without interest to June 30. Any payment made after this period will attract a penalty of two percent per month till the payment is made. Those who had not paid the first installment can pay it along with second installment. However, a penalty will be calculated at two percent per month, till the date of payment of the first installment.
The second block period begins in October. The last date to pay the second installment (without penalty) is November 29. Those who fail to pay the second installment will be charged a penalty at two percent from December 1 till the date of payment.
Property owners can pay the 2010-11 half-yearly tax without fine up to June 30. Tax may be paid at all the BangaloreOne centres and at BBMP help centres.
Extended Deadline:
June 30, 2010: Last Date for payment of property tax in full or for the first half year without interest.
November 29, 2010: Last Date for payment of property tax the second half year (without penalty)
A week after the Budget made homes more expensive by imposing a service tax of 10% on the cost of construction, banks are now ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.50%. Bankers say they expect rates to rise by another 0.25-0.50% after two-three months when the Reserve Bank ups rates in general at its next credit policy review in April.
All new home buyers will now have to pay 0.25-0.50% of additional interest. This is because the Reserve Bank of India has impounded more bank cash to check inflation, with the cash reserve ratio being raised by 0.75% to 5.75% in February. New borrowers will have to shell out Rs633 more in terms of equated monthly installments (EMIs) compared to people who have already raised their loans.
Home loan vendors are not making the buying decision any easier. Kotak Mahindra Bank, too, has announced a hike in home loan rates. On Thursday, leading home financiers ICICI Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) ended their “teaser home loan” schemes, under which rates were as low as 8-8.25% in the initial years.An ICICI Bank spokesperson said that the “two-year fixed-rate home loan scheme has been discontinued from March 1, 2010. The current floating home loan rates are 8.75% for loans up to Rs 30 lakh, 9% for Rs 30-50 lakh and 9.5% above Rs 50 lakh.”
The BBMP is planning to restart collecting betterment charges, which was stopped five years ago. To bail out the BBMP from the financial crunch, the government planned to bring the Sakrama scheme, which was turned down by Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj. Now the BBMP has recommended the collection of development fees from those who live in illegal layouts and want development activities in their areas.
There are around five lakh properties in the City which are illegal and have not paid betterment charges. The BBMP started working on this idea a few months ago and formed a committee led by the Palike’s zonal commissioners, chief engineers, finance and revenue officials.
According to the Palike sources, the BBMP has proposed to charge Rs 1.2 lakh for a 2,400 square feet site, Rs 60,000 for a 1,200 square feet site and Rs 30,000 for the 600 square feet site.
According to an estimate, nearly 2.5 lakh property owners have not paid their property tax for 2008-09 and 2009-10. Now, the civic authority plans to do a door-to-door survey to issue notices to the defaulting property owners and make them pay the dues.The demand notice will give them 15 days time to make the payments with two per cent penalty.
“Our officials have been visiting all these buildings and issuing notices to the occupants, irrespective of whether they are the owners or not,” said an official. BBMP expects to meet the shortfall of Rs 400 crore in the two months time.
Despite issue of notices,many of property owners has not paid property tax 2008-09 & 2009-10 under SAS.If the property tax for 2008-09 has been paid, property owners can avail the facility of online paying for year 2009-10 by using Visa/Mastercard on BBMP’s website.
The property owners without Occupancy Certificate can pay property tax under Self Assessment Scheme (SAS) with their title deed (sale deed).The property will be registered in BBMP’s B-Register until regularization of property.The property owners cannot file self assessment declaration once assessment order is issued. BBMP requests property owners co-operation during inspection and assessement by BBMP officials.
Last chance for defaulters
For payment made after 30th November 2009, an interest of 2% per month will be levied.
Property owners paid property tax for 2008-09 can avail the facility of online paying for the year 2009-10 by using Visa/Mastercard on BBMP’s website.
The property owners without Occupancy Certificate can pay property tax under Self Assessment Scheme (SAS) with their title deed (sale deed).
The demand notice will give property owners 15 days time to make the payments with two per cent penalty.
Further action will be taken against them as per the provisions, if defaulters do not pay their dues even after receiving demand notices.
Log on www.bbmp.gov.in or your nearest Help center for more details.
Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) appears to have opened a new window of employment to plumbers, who are in huge demand.There are approximately 60,000 houses which need to implement the system in Bangalore by May 2010, and 8,000 of them have already implemented it, according to BWSSB.
Each project can cost from Rs 4,000 to about Rs 40,000, which includes the material and labour cost. BWSSB is also trying to get the 12.5% VAT exempted from materials required for rainwater harvesting.The mandatory clause will be applicable for all new structures on a sital area measuring 1,200 sqft (30×40) and above, in the case of existing structures, it will be applicable for those built on a sital area of 2,400 sqft (40×60) and above.
When the order was issued, there were hardly any plumbers to do the skilled job, now there are around 400 plumbers trained by BWSSB, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technologies (KSCST) and IISc, and are available to implement the system wherever required. NGOs like Samvada are also training youth. “Around 10 youth trained by Samvada are busy meeting the demands of several calls. Their charges are site-specific and they specialize in rooftop rainwater harvesting for houses, hospitals, factories or any commercial establishments”-said program associate, Samvada, Satish K S.
The training process for rainwater harvesting will continue for the next three years. From April, another 500 will be trained and certified. Anyone can take up this training, and no formal qualification is required. As of now, BWSSB’s registered plumbers are being trained.
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has proposed relaxation of Value Added Tax (VAT) for filters intended to motivate the public to opt for RWH before the May 27 deadline. To motivate plumbers to carry out Rain Water Harvesting (RWH), BWSSB has announced cash incentives if they attain specific targets.
with the Governor, H.R.Bhardwaj, suggesting a thorough discussion on the issue on the floor of the Legislature, the hopes and aspirations of a large number of Bangaloreans to utilize the Akrama-Sakrama scheme and thus legalize their dwelling unit continues to remain a distant dream.
The much-touted scheme of the ruling BJP aimed at pleasing Bangaloreans has thus hit a roadblock right away with the Opposition parties keen on a full-fledged discussion on the subject which is likely only in the budget session of the State Legislature in March. Sources in the two main Opposition parties in the two Houses of the Karnataka Legislature, the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), told The Hindu that they are happy with the decision of the Governor to refrain from promulgating an ordinance.
“In 2004, the Governor T N Chaturvedi returned the ordinance with this message and then the government took three years to rectify and following objections the law was passed. It was also challenged in the Karnataka High Court which had stayed it. So how do you expect me to bypass both the legislature and judiciary?” asked Governor, H.R.Bhardwaj.
“It is an important subject which involves the lives of several lakhs of people. There has to be a full-fledged discussion on the Karnataka Town Planning (amendment) Bill.”
The two main Opposition parties in the two Houses were not per se against the Akrama-Sakrama scheme but were keen on a detailed discussion. It should be ensured that the scheme is only for the benefit of the common people and not for safeguard the interests of the real estate developers or commercial builders who have indulged in gross violations of building bye-laws.
The number of unauthorized constructions in the State has swelled with every passing year and what was four lakh when the regularization scheme was first proposed in 2004 has now touched nearly 13 lakh of which 10 lakh is in Bangalore alone.
Given the nature of the reply given by the Governor to the proposal of the State Cabinet to promulgate an ordinance, the regularization scheme is expected to be implemented well after the elections to the council of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike scheduled to be gone through on February 21. People will, however, have a year’s time to apply for regularization from the date of commencement of the process, although the cut-off date for regularisation has been fixed — December 3, 2009 — the date on which the State Cabinet approved the scheme.
The home buyer is normally a person who wants to set up a family or one who looks around for investment options. With the tax exemptions allowed by the government for repayment of loans and interest paid on loans for purchase of house property/construction of houses, investment in property received a shot in the arm.
As for the one who wants to set up a family, his needs depend normally on the number of members in the family, price quoted for the house and available surplus for repayment of loan. Location and distance from work place, possibility of future expansion and the like come next.
In India, promotion of housing initially came from the government. For the middle and upper middle class, affordability is the key. The increase in income of people during the last 10-15 years due to higher industrial growth, proliferation of software firms etc enabled property buyers to go in for larger and luxurious houses. The global meltdown turned the table upside down and investment in house property has been hit badly. This has led to shift in demand from large or fairly large accommodation to lesser floor space. Another reason might have been the wait for locating accommodation in the city center area.
Improvement in transportation facilities, construction of ring road and peripheral ring road, metro rail etc also factored in. The development of townships in and around the peripheries of cities also shifted the demand from one location to the other. There was a time when small apartments went a begging in Yelahanka, Kengeri, Whitefield and Bannerghatta Road. After the economic slowdown, salaries took a downslide and people thought of various methods to beat the recession.
One major approach has been to go in for lower floor area houses. The city is becoming larger and people need to either move out from the central area or go in for smaller accommodation. In this background, the one-bedroom tenement is perhaps the solution.
The government hopes to collect a whopping Rs 5,000 crore as fine from the scheme in Bangalore city alone. Apart from penalty, there will be a substantial increase in the revenues of urban local bodies as all these illegal constructions would come under the tax net from next year.
The revised Akrama-Sakrama scheme, which was approved by the state Cabinet on Thursday, will benefit about seven lakh properties in Bangalore and about five lakh properties in other cities. Stating that the scheme was a one-time opportunity to get building violations regularised, Transport Minister R Ashok said he had recommended to the government not to encourage violations in future and initiate criminal proceedings on both property owners and BBMP officials. He has also recommended setting up of an authority to check violations and encroachments in future.
Former BMP mayor M Ramchandrappa said that the government has failed to take people into confidence before taking a final call on the revision of the Akrama Sakrama scheme. People have been kept in dark and they are not aware of the happenings related to the scheme, he said. However, we need to look into what revisions have been made in the scheme to further comment on this, he added. The government is only fooling people with the scheme. “How would they reduce it to 50 percent, when the scheme itself was never implemented? The new legislature is far from the people’s requirement,he added.
The revised Akrama-Sakrama scheme, which was approved by the state Cabinet on Thursday.The revised Akrama-Sakrama scheme will benefit about seven lakh properties in Bangalore and about five lakh properties in other cities. The government hopes to collect a whopping Rs 5,000 crore as fine from the scheme in Bangalore city alone.Transport Minister R Ashok recommended setting up of an authority to check violations and encroachments in future.He had recommended to initiate criminal proceedings on both property owners and BBMP officials.
