<p>Triggered by the real estate boom10 years ago, a slew of developers and builders had emerged promising the moon to the buyers. After the recession and the slump, they are back again, although the potential buyers are caught between aspiration and the nightmarish risk-taking. <br /><br />Rajeshwari, a HR professional in an IT company had bought her apartment two years ago. She had to engage a lawyer to take care of the entire purchase process. Still, she had to endure the tough time before the bank loans came through. "We had problems galore with the bank who wanted to cross verify our documents twice and it was tedious job for us," she recalls. <br /><br />Stumped by the promising advertisements, the potential buyers are often ignorant of the troubles that follow. Says N Pillai, an art director, “First and foremost, the advertisements which entice the public showing glossy pictures and claiming that the location are close to a familiar place, are all misguiding. When you actually visit the place, it will not be located at the spot advertised.”<br /><br />In many cases, getting the Khatha of the property becomes a big headache. “The whole process becomes more difficult if you are not a localite. Sometimes, if the builder does not get his payment on time from the bank, he imposes an additional two per cent on you.”<br /><br />With fabricated documents aplenty doing the rounds, the buyers would have to be doubly careful. Many banks have learnt it the hard way. So, they aren’t going to fork out loans without cross-checking every document. <br /><br />A buyer, Hiten Jain had to wait for more than 1.5 years to register his apartment as he had purchased a house with a lesser known builder who made him run around for a long time. “I was living in the apartment without even registering the property. This was quite risky; it was just last week that I registered my house. This builder has violated all the norms and has deviated from the original plan which made the registration process very difficult. There were days when I stayed in the house without electricity,” he recalls. <br />Before the purchase, there is also the problem of the actual price of the property. A buyer, Suryakanth wanted to buy a flat that was initially priced at Rs. 50 lakh. But by the time he actually approached the final settlement stage including the registration part, the cost had gone up by 20 to 25 per cent. “Sometimes, you end up paying lakhs together just for a water connection. With that money, you could have owned a lake or a pond,” observes Rajeshwari.<br /><br />For Vinutha Jagadeesh, an IT professional, every step in buying her apartment was a cause for mental agony. She had ventured into buying a house before the recession. Once the recession set in and the market went bust, the builder stopped construction. For nearly two years, Vinutha had to just pay the interest to the loan she had availed from the bank.</p>
<p>Triggered by the real estate boom10 years ago, a slew of developers and builders had emerged promising the moon to the buyers. After the recession and the slump, they are back again, although the potential buyers are caught between aspiration and the nightmarish risk-taking. <br /><br />Rajeshwari, a HR professional in an IT company had bought her apartment two years ago. She had to engage a lawyer to take care of the entire purchase process. Still, she had to endure the tough time before the bank loans came through. "We had problems galore with the bank who wanted to cross verify our documents twice and it was tedious job for us," she recalls. <br /><br />Stumped by the promising advertisements, the potential buyers are often ignorant of the troubles that follow. Says N Pillai, an art director, “First and foremost, the advertisements which entice the public showing glossy pictures and claiming that the location are close to a familiar place, are all misguiding. When you actually visit the place, it will not be located at the spot advertised.”<br /><br />In many cases, getting the Khatha of the property becomes a big headache. “The whole process becomes more difficult if you are not a localite. Sometimes, if the builder does not get his payment on time from the bank, he imposes an additional two per cent on you.”<br /><br />With fabricated documents aplenty doing the rounds, the buyers would have to be doubly careful. Many banks have learnt it the hard way. So, they aren’t going to fork out loans without cross-checking every document. <br /><br />A buyer, Hiten Jain had to wait for more than 1.5 years to register his apartment as he had purchased a house with a lesser known builder who made him run around for a long time. “I was living in the apartment without even registering the property. This was quite risky; it was just last week that I registered my house. This builder has violated all the norms and has deviated from the original plan which made the registration process very difficult. There were days when I stayed in the house without electricity,” he recalls. <br />Before the purchase, there is also the problem of the actual price of the property. A buyer, Suryakanth wanted to buy a flat that was initially priced at Rs. 50 lakh. But by the time he actually approached the final settlement stage including the registration part, the cost had gone up by 20 to 25 per cent. “Sometimes, you end up paying lakhs together just for a water connection. With that money, you could have owned a lake or a pond,” observes Rajeshwari.<br /><br />For Vinutha Jagadeesh, an IT professional, every step in buying her apartment was a cause for mental agony. She had ventured into buying a house before the recession. Once the recession set in and the market went bust, the builder stopped construction. For nearly two years, Vinutha had to just pay the interest to the loan she had availed from the bank.</p>
