I'm still waiting patiently and have confidence that I will build my home in Pune. Do you?

Hello friends, I was pretty late in posting on blog as I was busy with something else but now with couple of more active members added, I think I'm getting closer. Thanks Mr Vivek Gupta for joining the active team.

I recently visited one of the reputed school in Latur (Rajashree Shahu Education institute) whose trustees are my uncles friends. They constructed a school building on their own without subcontracting anything to contractor. The total constructed area is - 60,000 sq ft and what I learned about the construction cost is unbelievable but true which I confirmed with others as well. It is < 400 / sq ft. Yes less than 400 per sq ft! If it comes to City like Pune, you add taxes, octroi and some extra for city labor as per your judgment and I will leave up to you on how much it will be in Pune. Ofcourse there is land cost but how much at the max?

And as I mentioned before, I just can't think of being a slave of some company for 15-20 yrs just for the 2 or 3 BHK house with no expansion scope unless your next generations do the same until their end of working lifetime! All HNIs,NRIs and onsite migrants may be exception to this which I don’t believe is entire picture to sustain RE in long run.

Housing prices are keeping pace with your salaries and they are closely monitoring it. They simply think as you earn more you give it all to RE companies just because you still consider home is something like next to impossible to build for individuals, always appreciates and you will buy from builder and builder only period. Yes there is need but can't we survive without? Certainly yes. Renting is the best option these days - ask any financial expert (not RE agent or builder salesman) and he will tell you if its viable in todays scenario and todays prices.

Hoping to be more active myself going forward.

All the best!

You too can build your Own dream home!

Do you recall since when we started believing that building or constructing a dream home is something only Builders can do it? Most likely we become so busy in search of earning that we almost molded our mindset and started buying homes at whatever prices they were sold.

Well, I'm an ordinary IT person (like many in Pune) having worked in Mumbai few years then shifted to Pune 2-3 yrs back and like many of you missed housing bus of RE pre-boom best time. I reseached a lot on this whole mentality of owning a home that I don't keep any regrets but at the same time don't feel like I should buy from builders with hefty price. This took a lot of research, homework and studying the market. I traveled around 5000 km in and around Pune in 1 1/2 yrs. I biked from Bhugaon to Wagholi of east and Chakan to Ambegaon on south...couldn't find a nice home within my budget(well I will come to my budget soon) I also tried purchasing a plot of land but decided to wait further due to overall state of economy after meltdown last year. I met at least 200 agents and individual sellers, looked personally same number of plots around 2008. But you guessed right...timing was NOT right and I was learning a lot of lessons!

And as we see finally India Housing bubble finally started bursting. It is yet to be fully exposed but it will, it certainly will.

Anyways, I don't want to start endless discussion of housing bubble but wants to execute a fundamental right to build-and-own a Dream Home in Pune. As our forefathers and prevous generations did build their own homes, in hometown I wonder why can't we?

Our (fellow young IT generation and few NRIs) slight impatience and easy money (or loans?) has given builders-banks nexus a golden opportunity to milk middles class salaries Cow for their lifetime (15-20 yrs) And we middle class just watched increasing home prices 200-300% helplessly! Gaonwallas (for their land), Banks (for lifetime loans) and Builders (for their guts) has become millionaires and how come suddenly we forget that building a home is like building a castle? Time will only tell how long this nexus can swim against real sentiments and market forces.

Anyways guys, lets forget about what we missed in past and take a lesson. The point here I wanted to make is...WE CAN BUILD OUR OWN DREAM HOME TOGETHER!

And when I say build means I mean it..we can form a legal society first (yes thats possible), choose our location, purchase a land with hard negotiations, choose plans to best suit / fit our needs, best in class quality fittings, enough space to our children's and last but not least joy of doing all this and sense of accomplishment! There would be different size, space to each of you depending upon contributions (yes you read correctly, it will not be EMI or huge profit to builder)

So if you are among many of us, feel free to contact us and we will invite you to join beutifull process.

Our earlier generations did so well as they were known to think better financially than us. Don't just keep criticizing builder-politicians-banks nexus and take a step forward. Is not a rocket science, its just building your abode. If you are still not convinced or on fences , then you free to pay huge profits to builders for than tiny so called budget home somewhere in outskirts of city. Yes, thats what you can own with limited budget if decided to leave up to builders.

I will be sharing with you my experience of land searching, some land deals internal tricks over the next few months. Lots to come on this blog..stay tuned...

- Anil