Silver Skyscapes Wakad

Silver Skyscapes Wakad

This one is long due, and its been a long time since i have posted anything. I have been to silver skyscapes about a month back and before i forgot any little details of it, i thought i should give it some time and put down whatever i could recollect.

I was looking at a rental accomodation couple of months back and happen to visit manav promoters another completed site (Silver Twin deck in wakad), to have a look at one of the property available for rent. I like it for couple of reasons and was hesitant to take it for rent for some reasons.

I liked (silver twin deck) it because it was near to hinjewadi, have good layout and decent size flat, good specification and also couple of things which gave me positive vibes were the quality of finishing of the flat.

The flat had good quality fixtures in bathroom and its club house was operational with swimming pool in working condition. This was an anomoly to other propety where the owner has just taken possession but the ameneties were yet to be operational.

Things which i didn't liked were, it was bang on the highway so security was a concern for me plus their was nothing around it and slums on one of the approach raod. There were no shops around to buy groceries.

Leaving behind silver twin deck, for the reason stated above i thought of looking at manav promoters other properties i browsed their website and found silver skyscape attractive. With good ameneties and apartment looked good in size. I submitted an enquiry on their website.

The very next day i got a call from a lady, asking me about my interest and she requested me to visit their site to have a look at the sample flat. They have flats available in varying size.

Next weekend i had planned to go to wakad to have a look at some of the sites, i was given contact number of the person who is present at their site. As lot of other sites were nearby and i happen to spend quite a time their i got a bit late and it was turning dark, i called up the person if he was still there and whether i could come to have a look. He said he was about to leave but will wait.

I went to their site, and they share the same approach road which apostrophe have, just that you have to travel a bit more to reach their site. Approach road is not at all good as i have mentioned in my post about apostrophe. And you dont really know whether it will really improve or not.

When i reached their site, the person whom i have spoken to was not there. Some office boy was there who could speak only broken hindi. I asked him to show me the sample flat. But it turned out to be futile as it has become quite dark by then and the flats didn't had any light.

I left it that day with an intention to come again, and i did visited them again. This time around i went with someone who gave me decent guided tour and had information about the project. As i said earlier they have different size flat so some of them were spacious and some were not that spacious. Overall they were of decent size.

Their 3BHK have different plans, one of the 3BHK have one of the room with the living room and other two once you pass the living room. I liked it plan because the room with the living room can serve as a guest room or if you are living with your parents as you parents room.

Something which i didn't liked was after the living room the other rooms are like attached to the flat with a passage, which is not straight, with walls forming different geometrical figures.

Another 3BHK will have all the three room adjacent to eacth other. This doesn't give you privacy as walls are shared. Fitting were yet again of good quality.

Floor size varies for a 2BHK from 1150 Sqft to 1224 Sqft in D wing, which they said will be ready by december. E wing which will be ready by march next year according to them have smaller flat compared to D wing.

What appeared at their site possession even if given in december, ameneties and parking would not be ready in any case by then. Even march seems to be doubtfull to me for the underground parking and other ameneties. Building D though was quite a lot of done. As again my wife was with me she liked the flat which had cross ventillation, not all flat might have that. You will have to choose after you see them.

Coming to pricing i asked the sales person about the price he told me rate of 2700, on being asked for discount he asked me if i can book right now. Which i refused and asked him for a final price which can help me come back for booking. The final price he quoted me was 2400/Sqft. I'm giving a sample price workup based on 2400 psf.

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2BHK @ 2400 psf

Saleable area 1229

Basic cost @ 2400 = 2949600

Car parking = 150000

MSEB = 65000

Infrastructure and Development = 65000

Society & legal = 15000

Total cost (excluding stamp duty and registration) = 32,44,600

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I did negotiated with this builder further for a rate of 2300 over the phone and i know someone who did the booking at 2250.

Concern i had with silver skyscape was for possession and the overall location as of now. One more interesting thing i wanted to point out is that whichever builder i have visited they always says there is a proposed DP road, even though i dont find any signs of roads there but they are confident that it will be ready within a year.

If you too have recently visited any property and would like to share your views about it please do so, it might help someone else get an idea about it.

Concept of Group Booking

Group booking concept seems to be in craze these days, I get to know about some or other group each day. Any buyer will be asking other about the group. And if somebody has already seen some property he will be looking for more people to form a group and bargain for a discount.

Group booking is good, but it does have some of it disadvantage too, this help buyer to get a good price, but at the same time a single buyer feels left out and if he can't get anyone to join him to book in the same property he feels he can't negotiate.

Why I'm writing about group booking?

Couple of days back someone who loves my car too much has scratched love, love all over it. And this was the second time, this happened. So when i was getting into the car to go to office and saw more love bites on my car, i decided to get a body cover for my car.

I planned to get the cover during the lunch hours, and i found one of my friend asking me about swiss county phase 2. He saw the ad citing 2BHK for 21.6L, but i responded to him saying the flats are too small, i have seen their floor plan on their website. But he mentioned that no they are not, so i thought of checking it again. When i checked i found he was right.

I will cut myself short here as i will be posting more details about it when i write about Swiss County and why the flats in swiss county phase 2 appeared bigger (Just to make it clear they are indeed small). 

As i was already going out (to buy the car cover) i asked my friend to come along with me, so that we can also go to swiss county and check their site. When we (3 of us, my friend, my friend's friend and I) went their and after taking all the details asked the price. We came to the point to ask them about discount. Before anything could happen, my friend's friend asked how much discount will be there if we do a group booking. 

That is when i realized that, if this is the way people bargain for a group, then its flawed. My friend's friend has never been part of any such group nor has he done any negotiation for group, he can't be blamed.

On the same day i got a mail which gave details of the property rates which has been negotiated for group booking. Now looking at those rates, i felt whoever has done those negotiation probably has not done it right way.

WHY?

Because I have negotiated with one of the builder for the same price which that group has negotiated. Whats the advantage of group booking then? I guess group booking is of advantage when it really provide a price which is otherwise difficult to get.

Here is what i think one should do while forming a group and negotiating for the price.

1. One should try and visit the property alone (alone means not with the group of interested people, a friend and 2 can always be there). Why? because i feel the builder/salesperson might initially quote a price 100-200Sqft more, because he knows if the group is there he will have to give a discount.
   
2. Once you visit the property as a single buyer, try and negotiate as much as you can. May be try to visit them couple of times to get the best offer exclusively for you. 
3. Now once you have the best offer for an individual, then you should ask for more discount for the group booking.

Advantages i see of these is, if you can get the best price for yourself, you are sure to get that price even if you cant form a group. And once you have the price for yourself and you then negotiate for group, you will surely get a great deal, where if anyone leaving the group wont affect the price. As usually is the case saleperson/builder ask for size of the group, and if the group size reduces they increase the price.

Like i got a quote of 2100 psf in pimple saudagar as a single buyer, while the mail i received has also quoted the price as 2100 psf for group booking. If i now go the builder again i may get a further reduction of 50-100 for group booking. 

Group booking hurts because, if somebody doesn't negotiate well for the group, then other single buyers wont really get a discount which they might have got. If a builder has some 50 odd flats and somebody comes up with a group of 40-45 people and negotiate for a price of say 2000 psf, which could have been further reduced if negotiated properly. Now the 5 other buyers coming for booking wont really get a price of less than 2000 psf. Even though they could have had the group price would have been say 1900 psf. Now the single buyer or the next group of 5 or less buyer will not get that discount too.

PS: The views are all mine, I might not be right. But this is what i feel. There might be many who might not agree with what i just said, I'm in no way trying to discourage or blame people who are doing group booking for any kind of price rise. Not everyone can negotiate on their own, I'm too a pathetic negotiator and even i would prefer to cling onto a group for good discount. 

Palash 2 & Palash 2i

Palash was one of the site which I was too eager to visit, having seen there wesbite and floor plan. I finally visited them, here goes my palash review/story.

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Palash 2.0 & Palash 2i

Location: Wakad

Palash 2 Pricing

Rate: 2950/Sqft

2BHK: 1297 Sqft (G building), 1428 sqft (F Building)

3BHK: 1633 Sqft (G Building only)

Basic Rate @ 2950 psf

2BHK (1297 Sqft) = 38,26,150

MSEB + open parking = 1,50,000

Development Charges = 50,000

Society = 10,000

Stamp duty = 1,75,000

Registration = 33,000

Total Cost  = 42,44,150

PS: The cost calculation shown above is for a 5th floor flat, flat on 8th floor will have floor rise (dont know why they charge floor rise though). For a 8th floor flat price is @ 2995 psf

 

For pricing of Palash 2i Please visit their website: http://www.palash2i.com/pdf/palash2i-pre-launch-offer.pdf

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First time I got to know about palash was about an year back and it was exciting to go through their plans and concept of eco-living. As I was not to keen on buying a house in pune then I didn't pursued it further. And when I really got serious about buying a house, I felt palash would have been already sold.

 

I got to know about availability in palash through Ravi Karandeekar blog. Went to their site and saw their floor plans again. They were really impressive and their floor does give you a lot of details.

 

Looking at their plans I become too keen to visit their site, As I love having bigger rooms and good carpet area overall. One thing I want to mention is that floor plan I liked were of palash 2.0, which is quite expensive, being bigger in size and with a rate of 2900 Psf. Reading 2900 gave me more impetus to visit them as atleast 2900 is lower than 3300, which was their previous price.

 

I was all excited and all the way had to keep pursuading my wife that if we like palash we will book it even if that means stretching our budget. I gave her reasons which she is too fond of. She is really sensitive towards environment (Thats why you can see me carrying stuff without plastic bags, her environment fondness reming me of me carrying, a papaya in one hand and some vegetable in other). I told her about the eco living concept of palash, though I must admit I was not very convincing.

 

Once you move towards the lane which houses all the builders site, from wakad chowk you can see a big board of palash announcing palash just 500-700 Mts away. I kept moving and when I felt I had already travelled more than 700 mts, I thought had I miss it. Just then travelling few hundred mts more I found a board guiding me towards palash site.

 

Approach road is a concrete one, probably done by builder I guess. Narrow but at least there was something which didn't torture my car. Once the concrete road ends you are welcomed by stretch of road done by blocks which have quite a few potholes.

 

Reached their site, attendant told us that sir is out for lunch, we can wait till then. He meanwhile handed us the big sheets of floor plans for palash 2 and palash 2i. Once again they looked impressive.

 

I asked him if we can see a sample flat till the time sir comes back, he readily agreed. As we started moving my wife refused to move any further, I was puzzled, on querying her she showed me a board which said do not enter the site without safety helmet.

 

I had to convince her saying I was push you away and stand in the way of any falling brick (Thanks palash for giving me reason to show my love to my wife)

 

Sample flat we were seeing was of palash 2i, the compact one. And did it look compact, well yes it did. It was a straight away rejection. Another thing was that it neither looked impressive, even if we do away with the fact that it was small.

 

We then asked the guy to show us sample flat for palash 2. There is no sample flat available for upcoming building we were told. But he agreed to show us a flat in one of the already constructed building, where some people have already taken up possession.

 

Once we reached the ready flat (in some other building), we saw a crack in the wall of the living room of that flat. This was turning out to be as bad as it can. Once again though the flat was of good size, it didn't give any feeling of being different or luxurious. Yes there was a digital box in the living which they claim can control AC, gas, fans and lights. Nor did the fitting used gave any reason to cheer, they were not bad neither were they appealing, which you would expect when you are paying more than 40L for a 2BHK. 

 

Now still not being satisfied as the flat we just saw doesn't have room as big as what was there in the floor plan (Building G). We asked him if we can see building G. If the flat is not ready at least we can see it even without flooring and can get an idea. By that time some supervisor to that guy had arrived and he guided us to building G.

 

Taking us through piles of construction material, we seemed to be on a trekking mission. He took us to 3rd or 4th floor of a building and mentioned that this is the flat. What we saw there we could not understand and neither did that guy. It tough for me to put in words what was there. We were in a flat which didn't have separating walls, and all three of us were unable to understand it plan.

 

That’s where he got confused and said maybe we are on wrong floor and this could be club house (now it was my turn to get confused) He took us couple of floor higher but no use. We asked him to leave it there. Once we reached at the ground floor I read a board giving details of target set for construction and it mentioned BUILDING H, whilst we should have been seeing BUILDING G.

 

Finally he took us to building G and showed us both 2BHK and 3BHK flat, though they were not complete (They didn't had separating walls for some area). But what we could see did help us decide. The room size which had impressed me in the floor plan now was the reason which made us dis-interested. The bigger room is 11X17, which is very rectangular and once you stand inside that room you do realize that rooms should be a bit squarish. Though room was big, but it bigger in length, and that’s where we realize that there might be difficulty in arranging this room. Putting a bed along the length of the room will make room appear empty with lot of space left (Putting bed this was anyway not a very good idea as then window will at your back). Putting the bed along the breadth might not leave enough space to walk. Mind you these calculation were just imaginary and keeping in mind a king size bed which is (6.5X6.5).

 

Another thing which we didn't liked were the curves in the flat (just a personal choice). As my wife is a big fan of the cross ventilation I pointed out to her that there is provision for cross ventilation where you do have 2 windows in the same room on different walls. Being an expert at it :), yes there is indeed provision but there is no wind coming in here. Even though there were no window pane just big slots in the wall, we could not feel any air inside. Though there was quite strong breeze outside.

 

Coming to the kitchen which is open and has slabs in C shape, which I personally like. There was a small window in the kitchen which opens in a pitch dark duct. So again a chimney is a must in that kind of kitchen, as being open plan your complete living room will be filled with smoke. A window would have been good there.

 

After our site seeing the enthusiasm I had for palash was subdued. We finally went to the sales office where "Sir" had arrived. Thankfully AC was on his cabin/room. Sir appeared to be very genteel person, he spoke about his project, talking about eco living, good natured and a person you would like to talk compared to the other property salesman. He gave us the details of the costing and on being asked about any discount, we were asked about our budget. 

 

Sir told us that he can give a figure which will be his last (I guess he might not have had seen much people like us, asking for discount, as palash looks to me more like made for NRI's).

 

You must be curious to know his last figure, well I thought I wont disappoint but anyhow as you wish. He offered a discount of 2L. Which means a 2BHK for 40L and a 3BHK for 50L. 

Somehow palash was not looking that attractive to us, after seeing it, we were more disappointed by the property rather than the price.

 

Now this is surprise

This does come across as surprise, Ravi Karandeekar blogging about my blog. 

Thanks Ravi.

I will write soon about other properties which i have seen.

Lifestyle living or Lifetime saving

In my previous post i had given details of the apostrophe. Putting those details i get a question in my mind, does the lifestyle living justify the price it has. Looking at the pricing of apostrophe a 2BHK for nearly 48L, which in my opinion is 15-20L more than a very good 2BHK which you can get. Now a 2BHK coming in the range of 30-35L will still have good enough fitting and build quality.

Doesn't 15-20L extra for those imported doors and imported tiles seems too much. I guess if you plan to do it yourself it still will be much much less than 15L.

According to me if for e.g. a decent propety having good enough features is having a rate of 2300/sqft then a property with any additional features as higlighted by apostrophe can max should be in the range of 2800/sqft or less.

Then why do they have such an exhorbitant price, is it give you neighbourhood of only those having BMW's and Audi's, and to get off the commoner from booking. But even if you have such neighbours you still are living in Wakad and not Koregaon Park.

Apostrophe Wakad: What makes it so expensive?

In my previous post i had given details of mont-vert tropez, Its now turn of apostrophe which too i had visited.

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Apostrophe
Location: Wakad
Quoted Rate: 3300psf
Value of 2BHK (1270 Sqft) @ 3300psf = 41,91,000
(Though i was interested in 3BHK but with their price even a 2BHK was out of my budget)
Car Parking = 1,75,000
MSEB = 85,000
Club & Ameneties = 75,000
Registration = 30,000
Legal charges = 7,000
Stamp Duty @ 5%

Total Value = 47.7 L
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Approach road or should i say no road (because what is there doesn't classify as road by any means), is pretty narrow and full of potholes. This is the same road for couple of more sites. Thankfully for apostrophe you dont have to travel full length of this road.

From the very moment you park your car beside the sales office, to the point of being seated inside the sales office, you get a feel of the sophistication you are in for. The entrance to the sales office foresees a well maintained garden with artificial water bodies. Yea, you can say 'upmarket'.

On reaching the office i was polietly lead by the sales person to a separate cabin. He asked a few preliminary questions like what are you looking at, a 2BHK or a 3BHK and then hit his sales pitch.

He started with the layout of entire property. He emphasied on:
--the palm avenues,
--water bodies
--ladscaped garden with a walking zone free of traffic
-- the senior citizen area
--the club house

Now he comes to explaining the apartment layout. Once again, it was using adjectives with all the features such as:
--Imported doors
--Italian tiles with finishing like wooden floor
--Quality of tiles they are putting in terrace and bathroom and all other thing.
--Imported and top end brand fittings

For a moment it did appear that I'm probably not dealing with a property sales but a hardware store salesman. Did i mention how proud or boastful he appeared in telling this? Well may be he has to get such details into the mind of the customer or else how he can he justify the price he was going to quote later.

After his pitch laced with obscene use of adjectives, was my turn to ask some specifics regarding carpet area and loading. I ask these specifics for all properties i have been visiting. So here are the specifics:
--30% loading ( i.e. in the area they sell to you, 30% of it will be common area like balcony, stairs)
--Carpet area - 1115 Sq ft

On being asked about the reason for loading being on the higher end, i got the same rhetoric: "Its still less with us, others charge more than that, and in Mumbai its more than 40%.". Well i'm not buying property in mumbai !!!!!! So this guy is upbeat about what he is selling without the idea that he is beginning to sound a little stupid.

He now offers us to have a look at the flats. Whilst taking me to the sample flat, he told me the location of the club house, garden and all. I finally reach the sample flat. Woolah !! I must admit it is indeed impressive by all means. You really will see all the things the salesperson was so boastful about and they do look good. Doors were far better than what i had seen in any other property and why not! they are imported from italy (as told by salesperson). Tiles and fitting and everything else was great. Not to forget the massive sized windows to each of the rooms. The layout of the bedrooms, dining and living areas was fine. As per the balcony, 3BHK flat has only one balcony with the living/dining area. No balcony with bedroom. With 2BHK you will get balcony with both living area and bedroom.

I was also showed the parking area. I believe it was an open parking area where they were putting tiles at that moment and salesperson didn't forget to mention the price of those tiles. Hahahahaha, i was laughing inside. What do i have to do with parking! But on a second thought, unless they tell about the tiles, how will they charge obscenly for that as well:D!

So we come back to the office and asked for the quote. He gave me the per sq ft figure as mentioned above and worked out the 2BHK to be somewhere around 48L and 3BHK for 58+ L.

Now comes the big question. So what do you want to buy, a 2BHK or a 3BHK (It seemed like he was asking are you still interested). Unfortunate, as it was for him, he stood firm on the price. Intriguing property, BUT (and thats a biiig BUT), the worth of this money IS TO BE CAREFULLY CONSIDERED. My critique wife was pretty impressed with the flat, but she still managed to point out a design fault in the poor ventilation in the flat. Though they have big windows but there was no way for cross ventillation unless you keep the door of you bedroom open(Whats the use of the Italian doors if they cannot be closed hahaha:D)

With the price quote, the upmarket property, and a flat laced with imports, I was in dilemma. However, how much can you negotiate with them and even if you get them to come down a few lakhs, it still will be too much (we are talking 40 Lakh for 2 BHK if he gives 7 lakh of discount). But i took my chances and asked for discount. BANG came the reply: "this is the price after discount. We have been selling at a price of 3700/Sqft". To the Ambanis ???

I flatly told him my budget for a 2BHK and left the property. As i left, a few questions came to me: Is the price of lifestyle gone so high???? Somewhere my mind told me that all this is a sham, a nexus and there are possibilities where the lifestyle is achivable for less with thoughtful plan.

more on the cheating done by pune builder

Not one but many it seems have been cheated by the same builder.
http://exposepunebuilders.blogspot.com/