The single-lane is now a four-lane wide road. And, although, tractors still ply, it now jostles for space with luxury cars, sports utility vehicles and sedans.
Not so long back, a dusty, unmetalled, single-lane road, which branched out as the Outer Ring Road (ORR) curved right towards Koramangla, was meant to ferry villagers on tractors.
The single-lane is now a four-lane wide road. And, although, tractors still ply, it now jostles for space with luxury cars, sports utility vehicles and sedans.
The shrubs and the plantations on lands adjoining the road has been uprooted and bulldozed to make home to towering residential towers, sprawling IT parks and shopping malls. Sarjapur Road, which underwent this metamorphosis is also home to billionaire businessman Azim Premji, majority-owner of Wipro Ltd. Adjoining his home, Premji has built the headquarters of his company and an IT park for his software division.
Real estate consulting firm Asipac attributes the sudden spurt of growth in this belt as being the 'median zone' or the epicenter of three-major IT zones of the city, which comprises 80% of the technology and allied industry.
The three major zones are -- Electronic City on the south, Whitefield-ITPL area to the North and the Marathalli-Outer Ring Road on the Western side forming a triangle.
"Bangalore grew because of IT. And, so did this area as IT generates a larger per capita income and a higher disposable income," said Amit Bagaria, CEO of Asipac. He said unlike Mumbai or Kolkata, which has concentrated business districts in small pockets, Bangalore has sprawling workplaces leading to a horizontal growth of the city. Chaintanya Manohar, Director & COO, Bangalore area of real estate agency L J Hooker said builders have leveraged this horizontal growth as it provides a greater catchment area.
The place to live
Sarjapur Road-Bellandur junction, is currently home to about 25,000 apartments, several hundred villas, about 10 million sq feet of commercial office space, retail outlets and hypermarkets. Innovative multiplex, Home Town – a large format home solutions store, Reliance Fresh and stand alone retail stores like Staples have come-up on Outer Ring Road leading to Bellandur Junction. While, Forum -- a popular shopping mall in Koramangla – developed by the Prestige Group is a drive away. Also, there is Total Mall on Sarjapur Road and some more are being built on this stretch. Also, are Intel's sprawling campus, Oracle, Accenture, JP Morgan Chase, Nokia and et al. The hub comprising technology professionals typically accounts for a major chunk of spending. And, this revenue generation leads to a quicker development of social infrastructure including hospitals and schools.
Sunil Krishnan, President of confident Group said the belt has more than thirteen schools, which is higher than any other part of the city. "That swung our decision to develop residential projects in this area," he said. "People always opt for those areas where schools and workplace are nearby."
The Confident Group, which operates a real estate vertical has sold about 3.5 million sq ft of residential space in this belt, comprising nearly 60 percent of it's total sales. And, also runs a school - Confident Gear Creative Leadership School - in association with the GEAR Foundation. Krishnan said the flavor of Sarjapur Road and Bellandur Junction is skewed towards the IT sector. "When techies come to the city for the first time they find this area as similar as to Delhi or Chandigarh," he said.
Demand-led, price-push
A report by McKinsey & Co, a global management consulting firm said Bangalore’s per capita income would soar. And, by 2020 will surpass Delhi, which currently tops in terms of earnings per person, by 14 percent.
Rising wages of technology professionals, higher IT spending and fresh hiring would fuel this surge, real estate analysts said. In turn, it would further fan demand of property both for residential and as well as commercial space. Builders are, currently, charging around Rs4,000 a square feet for projects, which have just taken off. Ready-to-move-in apartments are being retailed upwards of Rs 4,600 per sq ft. While, villas, on a 60 ft by 40 ft plot with a built-up area of around 2,800 sq ft are priced upwards of Rs2 crore.
Developers and analysts, however, said prices will trend firmer on the back of higher land prices. "Both, infrastructure and prices in this belt will get a fillip once Infosys Sarjapur campus starts functioning," said Krishnan of the Confident Group. Land on Sarjapur Road, approved by the government for residential use are traded at Rs 1,500-2,000 per sq ft depending on its proximity to Bellandur-Outer Ring Road Junction. Earlier, land price was quoted per acre and not in terms of per sq ft as is done now, said landowners and agents. Prices have multiplied by at least five times since 2004.
Higher land prices, however, will not slow demand. Girish Puravankara-led Lalith Gangadhar Constructions or LGCL, which is developing two villa projects off the Sarjapur Rd, said demand will be robust but needs to be driven by competitive pricing. "We provide an opportunity to our customers to derive higher capital appreciation on their assets by keeping our prices in line with that of a penthouse," he said. 'Majority of my customers are second time buyers who are keen to move away from apartments." "Rent returns will be high at around 10% and the assets will itself appreciate by at least 50%," he said.
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