Real estate purchase in Chennai

Purchasing real estate in India is extremely attractive those days. In the last two years smart investors have made around 30% increase in the value of their properties on a year on year basis. The demand is sky rocketing and supply is not able to cope, which is why the prices are over board and in a city like Mumbai higher than in New York.

Chennai really does not have any finished high standard real estate at this time. In light of this the city is currently the most booming town around real estate in India. Prices are shooting up more than even the Indian average 30% per year and I consider myself already the biggest fool on earth, that I have not purchased any apartment or house over the past two years. Anyway, I still want to do this, but there are a lot of questions for which I currently do not have any answers:

• Under which circumstances can I take a legal title on a property as foreigner?
• How do I bring in money?
• How do I convert the money without loosing out on FX?
• In case I want to sell how many years do I need to stick with the real estate for tax reasons?
• In case I want to sell, how do I repatriate the money into the EUR zone?
• and many more questions

All the questions I want to attack in the short future and I will post the outcome here as well. I really do believe, that purchasing real estate in India and especially Chennai is an incredible opportunity at this time with unbeatable returns around the globe.

Foreigners might not really find the new buildings as visually attractive as they very often remind more to Disneyland than any city. If you look around in South East Asia you will actually find many more such buildings, which have all at least in built Swimming Pool, jogging track and in house gym. Still there are two different concepts:

Townships: Includes really all facilities in a huge area of at least 100 acres. Townships are towns within a town and have school, mall, hospital, offices, apartments in the same gated community. If you live and work there, basically you do not have to leave the place if you don't want. I personally would not want to live my life in such a township, but the concept of a small town built up from scratch is definitely fascinating.
The following townships are currently in planning stage: Palace Gardens - very impressive!!, Ozone and World Village.

Gated communities: Have as well at least 100 apartments or villas in one area, but are only providing facilities such as pool, gym, children playground, play room and maybe a restaurant. Currently under construction are the following: Green Meadows, Upscale, Lumbini, Blessings, Fomra.

I had already indicated, that the price is quite expensive. Most of the townships are from 30 km onwards outside of the village. Depending on the luxury you pay from 3000 INR/sft onwards. Also for the gated communities the location and distance to the city center is the decisive factor. The per sft price can go up to 6000, which is already comparable to some Western European cities - In my opinion: IT IS STILL WORTH BUYING!! The only question currently is HOW?

Who is in town

Chennai becomes white. Two years ago, when we landed in the city, there was hardly any white face around. In the five star hotel, which was our first destination, we were even the only ones.
Today you are seeing them in the shopping centers, cycling with their bikes in the streets, on the backseats of Rikshas, they are everywhere and Chennai is getting really "cosmopolitan".

You find them:

a) In the restaurants of five star hotels
b) At Ideal beach resort on Sundays
c) In their offices during the week
d) In the clubs, such as Madras club
e) In the American school dropping their kids - Number 1 best seller
f) In shops, where you buy western life style
g) Birthday parties of kids - Number 2 bestseller


Most of the expats are here with their families and I did not get to know any singles here, as I imagine, life must be incredible boring for a single person. Lets see then, which nationalities are around (whom I know off):

There are two Austrians in town, but lots of Germans. Germans have a big consulate in town and quite a few of the companies (Durr, BMW, BBraun, etc...) have come in with production entities to Chennai. The highlight of the year is the consulate organized German Night, which used to happen around beginning of February and is definitely a social highlight in town and really fun! Watch out for the next one in 2008!

There are bunch of Koreans here as well, as Hyundai and their suppliers have occupied large production facilities outside the town. The issue with those guys is, there are many, hardly speak English, have all Korean facilities (restaurant, etc...) here, therefore they are not mixing with other nationalities

Finns or Finishmen, or how do you actually say this? A hardly populated country in the north of Europe is sending its entire population to Chennai to produce mobile phones for their biggest best selling brand, Nokia. They dont talk much, but are warm hearted and after twenty beers definitely a laugh.

Obviously there is a huge American population as anywhere in the world, but in addtion you find as well few people from most probably all the countries in the world around. I have met, English, Irish, Danish, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norvegian, Mexican, Honduras, etc. etc. etc. etc....

It is getting more colourful in town and after a few months you would know most of them as well, as you meet the expats usually at the same places.

Deutschsprachiger Stammtisch Chennai - April

Der naechste und dritte deutschprachige Stammtisch findet am 13. April ab 19:30 im Rooftop Restaurant des Raintree Hotels statt. Bis jetzt wars immer lustig und feucht, darum Zeit nehmen an diesem Abend.



Fuer jene, die noch keine Einladungs SMS erhalten haben, bitte e-mail and christoph.prieler@gmail.com. Sonst haben wir nicht genung Plaetze.