Developers set their site on better designs

A 'sight' for sore eyes, they have been set up to hardsell a building only to crumble before the latter's occupancy.

The rise in real estate has given prominence to site offices which come better designed these days. Unlike Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune this trend is seen only in Gujarat. The site offices are usually created by the architect of the structure.

"The site offices are set up in way that it does not create any hindrance to the main structure. The cost of a site office is anywhere between Rs 5-10 lakh depending on the size and quality," said Rajesh Vaswani of Shyam Buildcon.

The site offices can also be repeated from one place to another, he added.The lifespan of a site office is about 10-18 months. Once the flats or bungalows are delivered, the structure is brought to the ground.

N K Patel, President of The Gujarat Institute of Civil Engineers and Architects said, "This trend has been seen in the past few years only especially after the recession. In places like Mumbai there are special marketing consultant and brokers who try to hardsell a flat or bungalow."

The site offices are being planned in such a manner that by seeing it one can visualize the structure, he added.In Bangalore, developers create a mock of the to-be-developed building, said Pankaj Shah of 426 Developers while adding: "In Ahmedabad, the approach is more personalised as the customers want to interact directly with the developers." The 426 upcoming scheme at Vastrapur has a site office which can is re-usable.

"It is a knock-out office. Earlier people had small site offices. Nowadays, the offices are spacious with a special display room. Developers don't mind spending bit more to come out with good site offices," Shah added.

Usually the site offices are designed by the architect of the building but in certain cases, special designers have also been roped in.

Savvy Infrastructure has a special designed site office for its Sanskar scheme. The office has been designed by Bhaskar Nirula of Place Kinanesis.

"It has almost become mandatory to have a functional site office. Special consultants for utility and landscaping are also being hired and are stationed at the site office. There is also a conference room in the site office. People can take a walkthrough from the parking to the kitchen in this office."

Also bankers are roped in at the site office to carry on financial activities, he added. There are also special interior designers to set up a site office, according to Shah.

This also marks the increasing professionalism in the realty business, he said while adding that once the utility of the site office is over, they are often converted to club houses or recreational centres.

He feel that at times the site offices are built to take people away from reality, said NG Patel of NG Group. "I keep simple site office and do not believe in spending much on it," he added.