The Manchester of South India, Coimbatore, is still brimming with a lot of positive energy as far as the real estate scenario is concerned. The city, with a population of 1.8 million people, has a few pan-India players in the real estate market but the 35-40 odd local developers are confident of staying in business despite the economic slowdown. Though many are in the wait-and-watch mode, buyers are looking at this growing city as the place for long-term investment, especially on the residential front. Industry experts say majority of the buyers are from nearby cities like Chennai and Bangalore and non-resident Coimbatoreans and NRIs, who want to settle here post retirement.

The latest Jones Lang LaSalle India30 Real Estate Opportunities in Tier III cities identifies Coimbatore as one of the top 10 growing consumer markets. “Though Coimbatore stands low on current office market activity, the growing engineering and IT potential is sure to throw up opportunities for the real estate market in the next few years,” said experts. “The prices are marginally down by 5-10% in Coimbatore but the situation will not worsen any further. Land prices are going up and construction costs have increased. We don’t see any downslide on price aspect,” said Omkar Mohan Sankar, a real estate developer in the city.

According to him, the city has perfect attributes such as excellent locale, ideally set in the footsteps of Nilgiris, pleasant climate and sweet Siruvani water. Further, it is an education and healthcare hub and the two industries are recession proof. Though textile industry is going through tough times, work options are increasing as nearby districts such as Tirupur, Erode and Karur are fast catching the attention of world markets with their fashion products.

Also, with the entry of big players such as L&T and Suzlon in the engineering industry, more investment is expected in real estate market. “Once the companies look at increasing their work force, the requirement for housing would increase and the residential value in the city will go up,” said market sources. State-owned Electronics Corporation of India’s Tidel Park in IT-SEZ is expected to be ready by January and is likely to provide employment to nearly 12,000 people, which means more residential space will be needed. The Wipro development centre inside the IT-SEZ is also nearing completion and more IT companies like TCS and HCL have plans here.

The city already has the presence of global engineering and IT giants like Robert Bosch and Cognizant and big IT & ITES players like Perot Systems and Spheris. “The city is looking at employing 20,000 more and even if 20% opt for new homes, there would be a demand for 4,000-5000 houses soon,” said Mr Rajesh B Lund, VP, Confederation of Real Estate Developer’s Associations of India. Today the focus of realty players has moved towards Saravanampatti and Kalapatti, apart from the traditional residential hubs like Race Course, Bharati Park and RS Puram. “The huge activity and development of IT companies in the private IT space in Saravanampatti and also its easy connectivity to airport has attracted developers to construct houses there,” Mr Omkar said.

According to the LaSalle report, the city stands sixth in the connectivity index and fourth among the higher education institutes in top 30 tier-III cities and it gives lot of credibility and potential for the growth of real estate here. “The city is centrally located and close to Chennai, Bangalore and Kochi by road and also is well-connected to all major metros. Therefore, the prospects of people preferring Coimbatore as a place to invest in real estate in Tamil Nadu rather than already saturated Chennai city is very high,” added Mr Omkar.

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