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.
Reference:
The Hindu
