Vision of Life; by Sanjay: "Firse Modi Sarkar" & Real Estate !

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” … Jane Jacobs.

Well, no wonder with such understanding about the people she could write a book like Death & Life of Great American Cities & yes, I am referring to Jane Jacobs! And when it’s our beloved Pune (well, keeping due respect for my Nagpur blood I am saying our Pune) the no wonder looking at past four decades, the city has done to give everybody something! And recently when one of my media friend asked me to write down something about Pune & it’s real estate, on the background of ‘ Firse Ek Baar Modi Sarkar” & he isn’t the only one who is curious about the subject! For me it’s like watching a video cassette of past as I started thinking about my own journey for last three decades in this city! And more importantly what lies ahead also is equally important as why we keep track of the past; my answer is, to learn from it & correct our foot steps in present while we march in future! And I am happy to say in just four decades Pune has really transformed from a slightly bigger laid back pensioners & bicycler’s town in to a buzzing with energy Metro! And best part is in becoming a Metro by size of population as well physical spread, revenue it generates, job opportunities it creates & education institutes it has with all graphs rising upwards yet Pune has maintained that charm of town, at least till now! Here most people in a circle knows each others, still the old joints like Vaishali, Wadeshwar, Poona Coffee House, Marzorin Cafe are still crowded with groups visiting them for ages. And at the same time apart from age old shopping streets like JM road, MG road & Laxmi road still going strong, new destinations have come up in east & west i.e. High Street in Baner & Mundhva Koregaon Park till Kharadi in east!

On top of it in a very recent survey by Teamlease Survey’s Employment Outlook Report, Pune has been ranked as number one city in generating employment all over the country & this indicates more growth for the city as well Pune region as now no more Pune is just once city controlled (read restricted) within boundaries of PMC i.e. Pune Municipal Corporation! In any city or region when it grows the public transport plays a vital role & sure with Metro work on speed in coming five years entire Pune region will have better connectivity making real estate too get blessed with this development. Because at present a family or any member of family working in east side of city (for e.g. Khardai) can’t think of buying home in west side (say Sus or Kiwale or Baner) as commuting will waste entire day of the person. But with Metro & supporting transport means in place sure there will be more options open for the real estate buyers! I think the home buyers also should take this aspect in account while buying their home as in real estate those who can see the future down the line three or five years, they only ends up gaining a lot more on all fronts & not just money aspect of the deal! And with rest of Maharashtra failing to generate employment or quality education (sorry Nagpur but its fact), Pune has been looked after by millions as their career destination & for all this migrating populations homes will be required. As this very same report says Mumbai as bad city for generating new jobs, making Pune as only available option for career in Central India & it has a cultural backbone too, which most other competitor cities lack in!

Now the challenge real estate face is providing homes as per the budget of this migrating or say new population & here is where the approach real estate (read builders) will follow, is what will decide fate of real estate. Because with current scene or call sentiment in real estate, many veterans (first generation builders & financers) also are worried & asking each other when real estate will revive? Well, friends, if you meant reviving of real estate means profit margins, then forget it, is what I will say! With “Modi Sarkar” again in power, it means business & its business is to make the home cheaper! And this means lower margins i.e. less profit, less appreciation of properties for the builders as well investors! But yes silver lining is they will focus on infrastructure like water, drainage, power, roads, and public transport (I hope so) & make more people go for home buying all around the region & not just in some pockets! So more land will be available at lower price because of more supply of developable land with proper infrastructure in place; same thing has happened with TDR isn’t it? Some ten years back TDR was looked as gold but now it’s a burden for the TDR holder & reason is govt (read PMC, UD & all) flooded the city with TDR & end result is TDR market crashed. Same thing is happening with land as more the land in the market (read buildable) more the supply of homes & lesser the margin, it’s no rocket science but simple common sense which is most uncommon in real estate! There will be sure more buyers for the homes with more demand but these will be end buyers & like any other product they will bargain hard even for homes also. So builder friends, be ready for demand of homes but with minimum margins is what I see the future of real estate. Only those who can work at real low margins they will survive in real estate, is the fact!

At the same time home buyers also must learn to choose wisely as not just lowest price of the flat means best deal, is what they too should understand! These are hard time for real estate but that doesn’t mean it’s hay making for the home buyers as do mind any business survives only when its win-win situation for the buyer as well the seller! No builder will build something from his own pocket & give benefit to the flat buyers just because he want to sale his flats, this the buyer must keep in mind. If you are getting huge discounts & amenity packages along with the home then remember, there are no free meals in this world! Look carefully for the prodigy of the builder as just buying a home in your budget may make you a happy buyer but not for long time in future if the builder himself is not in good shape. In recent compound wall mishap where not just many labors in adjoin plot lost the life the cars of existing building’s residents also got damaged & not the main issue is who will do repairs worth of million rupees for this existing building, surely not the builder as had it been so then in first place he would have done a quality work, isn’t it? Now ask residents of such buildings are they happy home buyers anymore, even if they might have got their flats in cheaper rate in this building! So in coming years it will be very interesting contest between the builders who will obviously wanting to make some money by building homes for this growing Pune’s citizens at the same time the home buyers will try to squeeze the best deal with changed circumstances where supply of homes prevails on demand! Though both sides has to join hands for demanding infrastructure to all these homes because if builders are building the homes then it’s the residents who will be living in these homes & both builders as well flat buyers are paying in huge way to govt as well local body (read PMC, PMRDA or PCMC) & in lieu if we are not getting essential services then no home will be ever affordable, neither to the builder not to the buyer!

On the city front part, there are some things which usually are neglected by real estate & when I say real estate its by both builders as well flat buyers both of them eventually are part of real estate as well residents of this city too! Though our city is charged with fusion of old charm & new hip hop culture as if you look around the history of cities only those cities has survived on test of time which has changed themselves as per the needs of the times & delivered & so has Pune. Here right from education to culture to entertainment to jobs, everything is available for the citizens but two things; and that is public hygiene & public transport! You go to any good city around the world its public toilets & public transport stations may it be bus stops or rail stations are its mirror, reflecting not just cleanliness but its accessibility & availability in numbers for the citizens! And Pune lacks tremendously on this front especially the public toilets as when on every front we have been growing but the numbers of public toilets on streets have been reduced & the numbers which are there surviving, well just go & try using any public toilet! I am resident of west side of Pune & from Deccan to Karvenagar in nearly 8 km stretch there are hardy four public urinal blocks & just 1 WC block & barring one (which we have been maintaining) all other either stinks or has been locked down because of reasons like no water supply or neighboring residents complaining about the nuisance from the public toilet block etc! And the scene on this front is same all around the city. Imagine thousands of people especially women on road for their day to day needs & we can’t provide them a very basic facility like public toilet, what kind of Smart City we are!

Rather when city’s population is growing rapidly & we are urging more & more people to use public transport & make pedestrian friendly roads (read foot-paths) at such time Nature’s Call is the most essential thing we are neglecting for all these citizens which will be on roads for most of the time! On one side new public toilet blocks are needed & on other side due to poor maintenance of the existing toilet blocks citizens are demanding demolition of the same! Wow, what a progressive city we are; true hypocrites we are! Actually first make an action plan of surviving (read maintaining) all existing public toilets & then make a master plan of new toilet blocks & show it on city development plan so as it can’t be challenged as well the neighboring residents will be knowing about the same! As well appeal all business houses & so called industries, educational institutes, IT Co’s & even individual citizen’s too, to adopt one public toilet (as well bus stop) & maintain it! Remember we can’t be depending on govt for everything, if this city has given us something, especially a home to live, then we also have to pay the city back & what better than giving a wonderful clean public toilet or a bus stop as a gift to the city as it can be used by every citizen!

This city has given me my past which consists of most wonderful memories like walking on the calm streets of Prabhat road & BMCC road under the shadow of trees aligned all along both sides of these roads. The city used to have summer then also but a lot more pleasant, I want that pleasant summer back & the only way to achieve that dream goes through planting lots of native trees & making them grow. Trying to survive the existing trees & yes a strengthened public transport which will curtail emission of carbon mono-oxide, helping to make the city a bit cooler!

Today Pune is perfectly balanced on edge of making it to a wonderful great city & self destruction! Just as Jane Jacob said, its, we the citizen of Pune holds its future in our hand & our approach to life will decide fate of Pune. We shout for public transport but each of us has three to four vehicles at home. We shout against reducing green cover but we only cut trees in our society for making more parking places. We hail city for bad public toilets but we only oppose them in our neighborhood & turns blind eye for doing anything to maintain them & this list goes on! If we keep just pointing fingers towards each other & do nothing, needless to say our future as a city is doomed!

The only one change I want to see in the future Pune is every citizen respecting civic sense & follows basic things like honoring red signal & one-way boards on road & doesn’t make this city dirty by spitting or throwing thrash around, at least by him or herself! Even if each of us takes an oath that I will be a responsible citizen, I think eighty percent of our problems will be solved on our own, what more we want as a citizen!

Sanjay Deshpande