Hyderabad fast replacing Bangalore in real estate boom

Hyderabad is fast replacing Bangalore city as builders' avenue, the Karnataka city-based Mantri Group chairman Sushil Mantri has revealed. Sushil attributed the good turn for Hyderabad to the infrastructure planned as early as in 2005. The master plan drawn up in 2005 for the city still holds good. This is not the case with Bangalore. There the housing prices are sky rocketing. His group had planned for two housing coplexes there and acquired the necessary funds. There are on the look-out for perfect locations. This may take quite some time. In Hyderabad, things are far better. One can hope for a two-bedroom flat for less than Rs.1 crore. In contrast, in Bangalore, while 42-metre roads have been drawn up, these are getting narrowed down to 18 metres owing to commercial interest. This is not the case with the city outskirts in Hyderabad, where road plans are being adhered to. That is why real estate is leaving Bangalore and looking for better pastures such as Hyderabad and Pune. Even on the rental front, one cannot get a two-bedroom flat for less than Rs.30,000 in Bangalore, which in the case of Hyderabad is half of the amount at Rs.15,000. Mantri also said that real estate firms were looking for structured debt, as they expand into new commercial properties.