Realty Housing

A few concerned citizens of Bengaluru who are well aware of the problems faced by laymen while purchasing a house in the city, have made it a point to draft their objections and suggestions to the amended Real Estate Bill 2013. Though they were not invited for the consultation programme organised by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013, in the city on June 10th and 11th, they did not give up. These groups of citizens contacted the chairman of the Select Committee and requested if the Committee will allow them to submit their objections…

High Court asked the LDA to come up with a plan for restoration of both the lakes, and hold meetings of authorities, builders and the residents. Pic: Shree D N Koramangala 1st Block Residents Welfare Association who had filed a writ petition against Bellandur-Agara Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project at the Karnataka High Court, have withdrawn the case on Wednesday. However, the division bench of the High Court has given petitioners the liberty to refile the case, after a similar case which is before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is disposed. Nitin Seshadri from Koramangala 1st Block Residents Welfare Association…

Buildings being razed down at the demolition drive at Sarakki Lake. Pic: Rahul Ravi Demolition drives on lake beds is the burning issue in Bengaluru now. The drive that commenced with the demolition of structures in and around Sarakki lake bed in mid-April has continued with Bengaluru urban district administration carrying out yet another eviction drive at Banasawadi last week. While the district administration has been hailed for its bold move to clear the encroachments, it has also been criticised for penalising people who have been living peacefully in the city for decades. Eviction drives and rumours surrounding it have indeed…

The land abutting Sankey lake where an apartment from Mantri Developers is proposed to come up. Pic courtesy: Google Earth No one will miss the pristine forest area abutting Sankey Tank in Malleshwaram, just next to Aranya Bhavan, the State Forest Department building. The cool water in the lake and the woods nearby make the place a walkers’ paradise, with the chirping birds and thriving vegetation. This sight, it looks like will not last longer, with the Karnataka Government losing its appeal in the High Court against the land transaction and the owner of the land ready with a development…

Various citizen groups get together to protest the construction of Mantri Apartments near Sankey lake. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni On Sunday morning, May 3rd, over 250 residents of Malleshwaram and Sadashivnagar area marched around the Sankey lake on the walking path, shouting slogans and holding placards, denouncing the Mantri Developers that is likely to constructed an apartment beside the lake and demanding that the Sankey lake be saved. Sankey Walkers association, Malleshwaram Swabhimana Initiative (MSI), Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), Sadashivnagar Residents Welfare Association, Citizen’s Action Forum (CAF) and a number of other organisations came together to form a Save Sankey Forum…

With High Court granting a stay, EWS housing rule published by the government has hit the roadblocks again. File Pic. Unhappy over the final regulation on earmarking housing for economically weaker sections (EWS), published by the Urban Development Department recently, the Bengaluru chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) has approached the High Court and got a stay order on the implementation of the new regulation. With this, the regulation is bound to be left at cold storage till the court resolves the dispute. The High Court in its interim order dated March 30th 2015 has…

A new government rule on housing allotment criteria envisages reserving some flats in apartments for low-income families. This means, a well-to-do family could well have a really poor family as their immediate neighbours. According to the new regulation introduced by the State government, 15 per cent of the total space in posh apartments and villas is to be reserved for the urban poor. For example, if a builder has built an apartment with 2,000 flats, 300 flats in them should be meant for the poor. At least this is the spirit of the law. In reality, it may not happen.…

Managing all the facilities in an apartment, from water supply to garbage to electricity, is the job of a facility manager, which requires expertise. File pic. Picture this. An apartment complex at the heart of Bengaluru, that has 40 units. The Management Committee for the apartment has three members, all of whom have their own day jobs. One fine summer morning, the motor that supplies water to the complex breaks down. There is a need to purchase a replacement motor quickly. Add to it, the members who do not see eye to eye on anything. By the time they have…

Like many private layouts in the rapidly urbanising outskirts, Classic Orchards is a quiet residential community, with large independent houses. In 2010, the residents of Classic Orchards woke up one day to see the construction of an apartment complex on a piece of land they thought was a common amenity for the layout. If you are a resident of a private layout, this story will matter to you. Battles between property developers and property buyers are not uncommon. In a city like Bengaluru, where there are multiple government agencies involved in handling building approvals, one is often not sure if…

What would be the total number of residential high-rise buildings in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits, built during the last five years? If the data provided by the BBMP is anything to go by, 97 is the exact number of buildings built in the Capital city between 2009 and 2014, which have been issued official Occupancy Certificates by BBMP. What is more puzzling is the reply given by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Assembly session last month, confirming that no cases of residential apartments failing to obtain Occupancy Certificates have come to the notice of the government. However, if…