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An article from economic times we wanted to share

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/real-estate/realty-trends/after-gold-is-real-estate-the-next-asset-class/articleshow/19634970.cms

 

Over the last few years, the Indian retail investors have drifted away from the equity market investments to safer asset classes such as gold and real estate.

However, the recent fall in the gold price has raised questions whether the returns given by these relatively safer investments are likely to sustain. While the gold price has fallen 20% from the peak, are the real estate prices also likely to correct is the question asked by the most.

Unfortunately the correlation cannot be verified as there is no long term real estate index data in India that will help with any reliable conclusion.

However, an analysis done by Karvy’s research team on 20 years data of the Hong Kong real estate index and gold price showed that the prices of both have 81% correlation. Similar holds true for the Indian data in 2012-13.

According to the experts the reason for this is that the correction in the gold price makes people sell their real estate investments and invest in the yellow metal.

Although this cannot be used as a certain conclusion, if you are looking to buy a house and were not able to do it earlier due to high real estate prices, you can hope this theory to hold true.

 

Come summer and you feel the heat. This is the start of the gruelling timeline where the sun will heat up the environment like a burning furnace. For those who live in the concrete jungle called cities; it is sticky and sweaty time. Unfortunate are those who live in a house with an open terrace for their house will heat up like an oven.

But the scorching summer will pass away with little impact, if you can carry out some of the ideas which we are going to discuss.

Vanquish the culprit:

Houses with open terrace just pass on the heat inside the house and makes living unbearable. What you can do is; wet the terrace with the water in the evening time to reduce the heat. It works well. Try it.

If you are ready to spend some money, then you can buy gunny bags equal to the size of the terrace. Fill it with saw dust and then wet it water and place it in the roof. What will happen is that, the saw dust will absorb the water for long time. This will keep your house cool.

If you love plants, then you can have a garden in the roof surface with potted plants and small herbs. This will keep the environment green and roof surface cool. Growing medicinal plants will be useful for you since you can use for treating small ailments.

Grow indoor plants:

An indoor plant removes stale air and keeps the house cool. Plants like Begonia, Dracaena, Aloe Vera, Hyacinthus suits any type of home. Keep the plants near the window regulate temperature

Use blinds or thick curtain:

Avoid using black curtains as they absorb heat and do no radiate them. Using blinds will keep the heat away more effectively

Energy efficient Bulbs:

Fluorescent bulbs are best bet and will save money and energy. They produce less heat than the normal incandescent bulb. People tend to use yellow bulbs in the bathroom and kitchen. Please avoid it and change t CFL.

Good ventilation:

During the evening time open the door and widows of all the rooms. The point is the temperature in the evening will be less outside and hot inside the house. Let some cool air flow inside the house.

You can paint the roof with white color. White colors reflect all the heat absorbed and keep the temperature low and nice.

Table fan or ceiling fan:

When it comes to the choice, do go for table fans as it circulates cooler. Ceiling fans suck in hot air and circulates them in the house. It is bad for health. In humid climate you cannot stay in the house as it is sticky and hot.

Grow plants around the house:

City life has taught us to decorate the house beautiful inside but when it comes to area outside the house, we care less. Growing shade tree or plants will create a micro-environment which will keep you house much cooler. Plants have the ability to enrich the environment with oxygen. If you are planning to build a house do not hesitate to allot space for plants.

When couples are working:

In a typical city life nuclear family, both the couple work and children go to school. The house is locked. It is better to leave the window open. Closing all the doors and window will make the air hot, stuffy inside the house.

If you have any other ideas please share it with us

Happy summer!!

 

News taken from Business line http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/chennai-metro-rising-will-it-ease-road-congestion/article4614479.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy

The first train for the Chennai Metro Rail getting ready at the Alstom facility in Brazil.

Sriram Amarnath, a software engineer, has just returned to Chennai from the US after a gap of nearly five years. He was upset to see the congestion outside the airport due to the construction work being undertaken for the Chennai Metro Rail project.

But as he moves into the city, he is awed by the magnitude and pace of construction of the Rs 14,000-crore project, which will help decongest the city roads and take care of the growing demand for public transport.

With the city’s current population of over 50 lakh, expected to reach 1.2 crore by 2026, Chennai is struggling to keep pace with the ever-increasing traffic demand.

In the past, every household used to have a vehicle. But today, every member of the household has a vehicle, putting enormous pressure on roads.

INTEGRATED SYSTEM

Further, over 3,200 buses move nearly 52 lakh people every day. All efforts of the Government to meet the increasing demand seem to be falling short.

Thus, the Chennai Metro could become an important public transport system in the future.

It is going to be part of an integrated multi-modal transport system, along with the planned Mono Rail project, which is still in the drawing-board stage. This is in addition to the strengthening of the sub-urban rail service, the Mass Rapid Transit System, and the Metropolitan Transport System.

The Tamil Nadu Government gave its in-principle approval for the Chennai Metro’s initial corridors in October 2007 and the Centre gave its nod in January 2009. The project envisages creation of two initial corridors under the proposed phase-1 with a total of 45.1 km. The corridor from Washermenpet to Airport will be 23.1 km and the other corridor from Chennai Central to St Thomas Mount will be 22-km long.

About 14 km of Corridor-1 from Washermanpet to Saidapet and 9.7 km of Corridor-2 from Chennai Central to Anna Nagar 2nd Avenue will be underground and the remaining portion will be elevated, says information available on the Chennai Metro Web site.

Huge tunnel-boring machines, including some Chinese-made, are continuously drilling the city’s hard soil to enable air-conditioned trains to criss-cross the city underground in the next two to three years.

As on March 31, nearly 10 per cent of the tunnelling work for the project has been completed. Out of the total 27,220 metres, tunnelling work of 2,731 metres has been completed.

Projects worth over Rs 10,000 crore have been awarded to various companies from countries like India, Russia, Germany, Japan, France and UK.

Share of public transport

The Tamil Nadu Government’s plan is to increase the share of the public transport system to 46 per cent from the present seven per cent by 2026. The Chennai Metro project will play a huge role in this change.

Consider this data. The project is expected to remove around 13 lakh passengers from the road by 2026. Every year, it will save around 100 deaths happening due to road accidents and another 500 non-fatal accidents.

And, for a passenger travelling from the Koyambdeu market to Alandur, the journey time will come down to 16 minutes from over an hour, currently.Similarly, it will take just 40 minutes to reach the airport from Washermenpet in North Chennai, against nearly two hours by road, and an hour by rail.

The Chennai Metro is following the example of the Delhi Metro Ltd, which, incidentally, is the primary consultant for the project in the first phase.

According to the plan, the first metro train should start plying in 2015. Incidentally, the train, which is getting ready at Alstom’s manufacturing plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is expected to arrive in the city in June.

Meanwhile, out of total plinth track of 10,577 track metre between Vadapalani and Koyambedu, work on about 9,800 track metre has been completed. A total of 1,586 joints for welding of tracks have been done, the Chennai Metro said. Interestingly, the metro will go up to the airport. Sriram, who is leaving for the US in two weeks, hopes that he will return to the city in three to four years to take the metro and reach his home in the heart of the city.

 

Old Mahabalipuram Road favours home owners most because of moderate property prices and high rental values. While Tambaram and Medavakkam have low property prices and rental values, Porur and Kolathur make a strong case for renting because of low rental values. Chetpet is the least affordable locality with high property prices and rental values. OMR and Tambaram offer a better lifestyle because of larger residential spaces.

At 6.85 sq. ft per Rs. 1 lakh, Chetpet is the costliest locality while OMR is the cheapest at 28.9 sq. ft per Rs. 1 lakh. These are some of the findings of a new report on Chennai’s real estate market conducted by ArthaYantra.com, an integrated personal financial services company.

Based on average property prices, a professional needs to save for four years to afford the down payment for a house in Medavakkam, Tambaram or OMR, compared to seven years for a house in Ashok Nagar, eight for T. Nagar, 10 for Anna Nagar or Adyar, and 10 years for Chetpet.

Other key findings include Chennai’s rise of 209 per cent in index value from 2007, with Kolathur scoring the highest rise, followed by Chetpet and Ashok Nagar.

The report attempts to provide a quantitative and merit-based answer to the question of buying vs. renting a home, says a press release, and analyses the costs of both options across 13 locations ranging from Adyar and OMR to Anna Nagar, Chetpet, T. Nagar and Tambaram. The research considered three important factors: rental value, property price and gross income.

An article from times of India

http://www.indiaeveryday.in/tamilnadu/fullnews-chennai-corporation-to-build-five-bridges-1135-5274009.htm

 

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation will build five bridges at a cost of around 13 crore in different parts of the city in 2013-14. The residents and commuters in Bojaraja Nagar in north Chennai will finally get their long-pending demand of a vehicle subway to replace the railway level-crossing near Mint. It will make entering and leaving Srinivasapuram and Mint easier for more than 6,000 families.

The subway was decided upon in mid-2011, but was delayed due to metrowater work. There have been a number of accidents at the railway crossing.

A bridge will be built across Buckingham Canal connecting Murugesan Nagar in Thoraipakkam to Pandiyan Salai in Neelankarai. This will come as a relief to thousands of IT professionals who reside in south Chennai by giving them another route to reach East Coast Road. Many commuters exit Old Mahabalipuram Road at different points to escape traffic during peak hours.

“I try taking the right at Sholinganallur junction instead of the one at Thiruvanmiyur because traffic inches along. This new bridge will give me another route,” said D Sandeep, a senior executive with an IT company.

The box culvert, which is a precast concrete structure that is assembled to form a bridge, at Padi Pudu Nagar Road, which stretches across the Padi Kuppam canal, will be demolished and reconstructed. Two more bridges will be constructed in the same way. One will connect R K Link Road, also known as Korattur North Station Road, to Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Baba Nagar. The other will be built at Narayanapuram across the Keelkattalai Tank Surplus Course at Pallikaranai.

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