r2i forum

Our family R2Ied to Chennai in July 2010. Found the transition pretty easy. Kids are 6 and 3, now learning tamil and hindi and socialising well in our apartment community. Renting currently as the stint in Chennai is short(hopefully!).

We are moving to Kerala this summer - May 2011. We have admitted our kids to Global Public School - 2nd grade and LKG.

We have done one weekend visit to Tripunithura area to look at flat/ villa projects. Below are some comments and what we are looking for in R2I/R2K forum.

Projects looked at:

(1) Ansal City(Bookings open on Villas/Flats. Expected completion in 2013). They are selling plots and people can build however they want. Visited a previous project(Riverdale) by Ansal and this setting did not visually appeal to us much as opposed to similar looking villas. Roads were wide, there was greenery and common facilities were good. Really liked their "Florence Heights" flat plan in Ansal city, priced at 55-60 Lakhs(2000 + Sq Ft)
(2) Heera Lifestyle(Bookings open on Flats. Expected completion in 2013). Priced at 2750 per sq ft
(3) Heera Royale(completed). Few flats are coming on first sale by investors prior to registration. 53Lakhs + for 3BHKs
(4)Abad - Daffodil Gardens. Same as Heera Royale. Few sales pending. Roof top swimming pool, only 9 occupants so far.
(5)Shreeji Dwaraka - Villas. 3/4 bed. 1600 to 2500 Sq Ft. Price 2700-3100 per Sq Ft. Larger villas have high sloped ceilings and looks different from common villa designs.
(6) Sowparnika puzhayoram. All handed over. Second sales are there. Villas looked nice, but congested and roads were narrower. Not ideal location for us, so not pursuing.

Heard about Lilly Brooke(near Udayamperur) designed by Mathew and Saira architects. We are collecting information on the project.

What concerned us was that in most communities, more than half are bought by NRIs and investors and remains locked. Since most flats are not registered, associations are not yet formed in some cases. Builders have not completed common amenities etc. Community presence is hence significantly lacking. Would love to hear comments/opinions from veterans like Suma chechi and others regarding this.

We are still undecided whether to buy immediately or rent for a while. But confused a little as prices seem to go up and do not want to end up paying a lot in future.

Talked to one landowner with 10 cents land in Puthiyakavu, asking 4 lakhs per cent. We wanted community living, hence have put this on hold. Also do not have current budget/patience to buy land and then see through a house construction ourselves.

We would LOVE to hear from kochi R2K community. Those who have R2Ked already or are in the process. Where do you live and your opinions? When we moved to Chennai, we were able to connect to lot of R2Iers in our own apartment and this immensely helped us settle down. Even now it helps in talking and sharing thoughts and information. We are seeking such a community in Kochi.

Also would love to connect with other parents from Global Public School!

By the way, I am from Aluva, husband is from Thrissur.

Good informative post.

You could have chosen R2King as your Id.

Glad to see a fellow r2k family! Please PM me when you get a chance.

Did you look at Imperial Gardens in Tripunithura?

Hi Suma Chechi,
Imperial gardens is a completed project? I just googled and saw a 4BHK for sale at 1.3 Cr. It is out of our budget and the house is also bigger than what we are looking for. We are looking at 1500-1800 Sq Ft 3 BHK within 60 Lakhs.

With all the online research I have done so far, I did not find a decent villa project for the price range you provided. I will be in Kerala next month and will post what I find out with direct contact.

For 50-60 lacks there are a lot of homes available but a villa setup always cost more on the net ads.

I found that http://www.keralapropertychoice.com has many listings of this kind specifically around thripunithura area.

You should get definitely get flats in your price range. Someone I know recently obtained a new flat from Clearway Builders at Vennala, behind EMC - 1700 sq ft 3 bed and with all the cupboard work they added it came upto approx 53 lakhs or so. Nice building and good quality tiles etc provided by builders.

did u look at ansal city,whats your review?

It was one of the plans and layout we really liked (the flats), however, we were not willing to wait 2 years to move in. Further, all flats we looked at were heavily underpopulated. Hence decided on a villa in a project which was completed last year and most villas were already occupied.

Here is our latest update.

We purchased a villa in the outskirts of Kochi, in sashtamugal. This is on NH49 - in the kochi-munnar-madura highway between thrippunithara and muvattupuzha. It is walking distance to bus stop - plenty of ernakulam-mvpzha buses (low floor too) available. We were second buyers as it is a completed community. 12 villas in total, only 3 are unoccupied now. Several NRIs and families with kids. Moved in first week of June, settling down getting some work inside and outside of the villa completed now.

Both girls started in Global Public School in June, now fully settled into that. School van picks them up and drops them, it is 10-15 min ride.

For those looking into buying a house, keralpropertychoice suggested by r2k is excellent to find individual houses, both new construction and resales. The person is a long term real estate broker in the area and extremely knowledgeable for prices as well as location. We saw numerous flats and villas through him. For our time frame, (we wanted to move in before June first week) he did not have anything that met all our needs. We do recommend him highly - especially for people not fully familiar with the thrippunithara and nearby areas. He does not deal with kochi city and other areas much.

best wishes to all.