The city-based Siddha Group will build a Rs 60 crore dedicated block with 314 luxury studio apartments in the Rajarhat New Town area on a 2.5 acre plot close to the area's main arterial road.
"I have stayed in such a studio apartment in New York and found the demand for such a convenience strong among young buyers and working professionals in the city", said Sanjay Jain, Siddha's managing director.The idea was to offer buyers ownership with a pain-free maintenance experience and in-house facilities, said Jain.
The project would break new ground because in the Kolkata real estate market, small apartments today stood for low-cost housing with poor construction quality, fittings and finish, said property consultant Arun Jhunjhunwala.Compactness was synonymous with low income group (LIG) housing in Kolkata.
It was impossible to find small but good quality accommodation in the city because of the mindset that a small apartment buyer was always an LIG buyer and would be happy with terrible quality, he added.Compact ownership apartments, studio-type or otherwise, were avoided by builders because it meant approximately 20 per cent higher construction cost on additional walls, car parking slots and fittings, said Jain.
Typical buyers would be from the information technology (IT), telecom and civil aviation sectors, as also non-resident Indians (NRIs) and non-resident Bengalis (NRBs) who were coming back to the city with increasing frequency, he added.To provide flexility to the buyer, the group would run, only on the owner's request, a short-term rental facility for the studio apartments for the period the owner was not in occupation.
Short-term visitors to the city could then use them against a charge.In addition, the block would have a floor of serviced apartments.
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Jain said he felt this was needed because very often, professionals, NRIs and NRBs had friends or extended family visiting them, and the visitors could then be accommodated in the serviced apartment, or the unoccupied studio apartments.
The studio apartments would be launched for outright sale by late-May 2008, for delivery in early 2010.Jain had branded the project Xanadu.The apartments would be priced between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 21 lakh offering floor area of 500sq.ft. to 700 sq.ft., and would be backed by facilities like in-building miniplex, coffee-shop and restaurant, gym, health club, roof-top plunge pool, business centre, indoor sports facility, a Laundromat, a convenience store, ice and beverage vending machines and a concierge and maintenance service.
Optional services would include in-building connectivity, electronic access and illumination from a remote location.Siddha had eight completed projects in Kolkata including two landmark properties called Siddha Point and Siddha Park on Park Street, as well as several projects in Jaipur.
It was working on a 150 acre villa colony in Jaipur as a joint venture with Rajasthan State Housing Board and planning a serviced apartment block in partnership with a Singepore company, and a second 150-unit, Rs 40 crore studio apartment block.