'Gated Communities' a hit in India

Akin to Brazil’s ‘Condominio Fechados’ (closed housing estate) or Argentina’s ‘Barrios Privados’ (private neighbourhood), more and more cash-stacked Indians today are seeking the security and the luxury of living in a ‘Gated Community’, a trend catching up fast in the domestic real estate sector here.

Gated Community is a form of a residential complex, sometimes characterised by high walls and fences. It boasts of controlled entrances for pedestrians and automobiles, surveillance of those entering the premises, clean streets and amenities on a par with a dream luxury resort.

The concept, already popular abroad, is making a foray into the country as NRIs returning to their roots are looking for the security and amenities of gated communities found abroad, says Manoj Namburu, CMD of Alliance Group.

 

These communities offer the perfect getaway from everyday civic problems, ranging from water cuts, pebble-strewn streets to living with the stench of unpicked garbage cans.

“It is a world in itself with all the latest amenities. It has its own power, water and maintenance departments,” says a builder.

Security is one of the key features that a gated community offers, says Edward, deputy marketing manager of Puravankara, a leading real estate developer.

Special security personnel man various entry and exit points. A closely connected set of security personnel feed information on visitors entering the premises and save residents the pain of answering umpteen doorbells rung by salesmen or other unwanted visitor on the premises.

With many professionals who keep shuttling between India and countries abroad, security of their homes is a big challenge, says Edward. “An independent house or just a regular apartment does not offer that security. But in a gated community, these residents can leave their house for some months without fear of being broken into or tampered with.”

But it is not just the security, but also the amenities, some of which border on ‘living life king size’, which are getting the cash-rich professionals hooked on to these communities.

An upcoming 275-acre integrated township offers its residents the luxury of catching a helicopter shuttle to the new Bangalore airport virtually from their doorstep! The township will have its own helipad to enable residents take the helicopter shuttle. The chopper will also double up as an air ambulance to lift critically ill residents to hospital for emergency service, doing away with wasting precious minutes in traffic jams.

In a bid to woo this high-end segment, developers have begun offering amenities of international standards, albeit at a premium cost.

These residential complexes resembling luxury hotels boast of swanky swimming pools, saunas, clubhouse, spas, dedicated areas for jogging freaks and fitness centres, well manicured lawns, vast green stretches of golf courses, cricket pitch, shopping malls and multiplexes.

Self-contained entities, these communities, also perceived by some as a fancy of the nouveau rich, is an attempt to segregate from those who do not fit into their class.

A neighbourhood with fancy names like 10-Downing or Inner Circle, speaks volumes of those opting for them. A perfect neighbourhood with a perfect address.