The car ride through Nerul is quite a breeze. Unlike other parts of Mumbai, you get to see what living in the financial capital of India is like. This residential and commercial node of Mumbai is a planned development with towering skyscrapers which cater to both residential and commercial real estate sectors. Nerul has malls, entertainment outlets and restaurants to cater to the most discerning customers.
What most people who drive through Nerul don’t know is that this node consists of 50 sectors and is one of the most populated and affluent localities in New Mumbai. Nerul along with Seawoods-Darave, also known as just Seawoods, is the second best developed zone of New Mumbai after Vashi.
Here are a few good reasons why investing in apartments in Nerul is sound advice:
Good road & transport facilities
BEST and NMMT buses serve affordable transportation. Being a planned township, it has roads that intersect at right angles, road signs prominently displayed and traffic signals with LED time displays.
The proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport and the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), also known as Sewri-Nhava Sheva Trans Harbour Link, will boost further developments in the area. It will be a 22-km freeway grade road bridge that will connect the city of Mumbai with Navi Mumbai and is slated to be the longest sea bridge in India, when completed.
Well-known educational institutions
Nerul has many well known institutions offering various streams of education: schools catering to different syllabi and differently challenged children: colleges for arts & science: institutes of management, maritime studies, pharmacy and nursing: medical and engineering colleges and more.
Restaurants, coffee shops and ice-cream parlours
Nerul has a plethora of eateries with many well known brands situated here and offers a variety of cuisine: Indian, Chinese, Continental, to name a few and serving every pocket. Most pizza brands are here with the likes of Barbeque Nation also setting up shop in Nerul. Cafe Coffee Day, Naturals, Baskin Robbins, Ice n Spice (a pub with a casino) are also present in Nerul, besides malls.
Good hospitals and nursing care
Nerul has many good hospitals, both government and private, that offer general care and multi-specialty services, besides many nursing clinics.
Sports
Nerul has a few sports complexes and the well known world-class cricket stadium, the DY Patil Stadium, where many IPL cricket matches were held, is one of them. A new golf course is also on the anvil.
However, like other parts of Mumbai there are a number of unsold apartments in Nerul. Recent newspaper reports indicate that 52,000 two BHK (bedroom, hall, kitchen) are unsold in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), an increase from the previous year which had 45,000 unsold flats in the city and 1.30 lakh in the MMR. The average size of these two BHK flats is most often around 1000 sq ft.
There are two main reasons, generally, why people are not putting their money into real estate in Mumbai. The first one, being apartments are overpriced and most people cannot afford them and the second reason is that the returns from the equity market are better so money which should going into home buying is being diverted into stocks.
This has lead to a rather dismal picture for not just the builders but also for the investors who are now stuck with flats they cannot resell. There is a glut in supply and many builders are offering freebies to encourage home buyers. Funnily enough, reports indicate that prices on the builders’ catalogues went up by more than 6% during the last quarter of 2014. But builders are more prone to discounts then cutting the offer prices, one expert said.
In August last year, the foundation stone for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) estimated to cost INR 4,000 crore was laid at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). It is anticipated that this SEZ will have a major impact on the price of realty prices Navi Mumbai. The prices of apartments in Nerul are likely to increase once this SEZ is functional.
Realtors feel that the new employment opportunities created by the SEZ will create more demand for apartments in Nerul and other nodes of Navi Mumbai. Information Technology (IT) has been a catalyst for the real estate business; by creating demand and raising the bar for quality construction. Real estate experts cite the example of the market in Pune which has grown on the back of the IT industry. They point out that the Thane-Belapur belt which was an industrial zone has been slowly morphing into a services zone. This is another factor which will impact the demand for houses in Navi Mumbai.
Prices for apartments in Nerul ranged from INR 9000 to INR 12, 500 per sq ft during the first three months of this year.
Nina Varghese for IndiaProperty.com
Image: By Gentlesound [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons