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La Celeste - a residential project by XS Real

Last weekend I was at the site of La Celeste, the residential project promoted by XS Real. I wanted to go to the Millenium Homes exhibition but since that had only 10 participating builders decided to check out this project, which was any way part of the Millenium Homes exhibition.

1. Site Accesibility of La Celeste:
It is exactly 2 kms from the Mount Poonamallee Road. You have to take the road opposite to TCG IT Park where there is HP office on the Mt Poonamallee Road. The entire stretch of 2 kms from main road to the site is fully developed, in the sense you have all the basic infrastructure, like pucca tar roads (30 ft), hospital (Kedar Hospital - there is bus stop Kedar Hospital bus stop on the Mt Poonamallee road), shops and lot of independent houses.

2. Construction quality: I am not a Civil Engineer, so cant really talk about construction quality and materials used. But at first look, nothing looked of inferior quality to me. They are using hollow brick construction for walls.

3. Builder's track record: My understanding is that they are definitely premium builders and they have successfully executed past projects across Chennai. They have almost sold the Phase I of La Celeste comprising of 80 flats. The construction has come up to the third floor and the completion date is Dec 2009. I think it looks reasonable considering that already the foundation and 2 floors have been completed.

4. Bungalow concept: It is nothing very different from other flats except for the fact that you get a additional foyer where you can keep your shoes and a place to sit and read morning newspapers. They will also put a wicket gate so that it gives you a feeling of a individual house inside the flat. I would not give too much importance to this.

5. French architecture: They are adopting a french style architecture for this project in the way of avenue trees, sculptures and entrance. More cosmetic in nature and it doesnt add much value to the flat you are going to buy.

6. Other amenities: The development of other amenities may take longer time since the builder is planning 7 phases of this project. So he will not complete all the common amenities unless he completes all the phases.

7. Price: As far as the price is concerned, to be honest, nobody can predict where it is going to go. Nobody expected the slump like what happened over the last 1 year. FYI, the same property was launched 1 year ago by the same builder for Rs3895/- per sq.ft. He launched 4 phases or so and he has already completed the foundation work for even phase 2 to phase 4. Since he could not sell the property, he has now reduced the price to Rs2895/- per sq. ft. The price has fallen over the last year but not sure if we have hit the bottom.

Regarding the location, I am convinced that it is a good location and going by their general behaviour the builder also looks professional and decent. May be, the project should be of interest to persons whose budget is between 50-65 lakhs.

You can know more about the project from their website http://www.xsreal.com/.

8 comments:

Selva(a.k.a) Suri said...

Hi..

What's your view on NPS Scheme? Can you share your thoughts on the new scheme...

Anonymous said...

Did you had a chance to look at the ration of carpet area versus built up area . I think the ratio is 70% and thats the buyers loose money in this project.

Venkysdiary said...

Yes, the carpet area is around 70% and it is confirmed by the builder. Yes, it is little on the higher side.

Venkysdiary said...

Hi Selva (a.k.a) Suri,
By NPS, I guess you mean the New Pension Scheme, right?

It has been launched with much fanfare but before tying the loose ends.
1. Non-availability of tax exemptions is a big let down. It is said that in this year's budget you may get exemption on the initial investment but about withdrawls the PFRDA Chairman is still not sure about.
2. The scheme cost structure is attractive for big ticket investments but not for small value investments. The cost structure works out to close to 10% in few cases.

3. Still clarity is not there many of the charges of the scheme.

The scheme has failed to evoke any response if you go by the number of persons enrolled. Can you believe it is only 400 persons so far across India!!

It may take sometime for this product to evolve before it catches Indians fancy.

Balaji said...

Hi,
Those who have booked / thinking of booking apartment in La Celeste (XS Real), please join the below Orkut group. This group is to bring together everyone & share our opinions & experiences.

http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community?cmm=97317543&refresh=1

thenearnessofyou said...

hey, when is this house finished buliding?

Anonymous said...

The ratio of carpet area to the chargable area is very less . If you remove non value stuff like the the foyer the carpet area is ~ 62% !!!! .

Anonymous said...

XSREAL offered PPIS(Prompt payment incentive scheme) at the time of sale, but they did not keep the promise. They just corned the owner giving some explanation. They can easly cheat you and don't just trust their words. They try to differentiate them from other builders. But they are just another animal of builders. Just a word of caution if you were thinking of buying.