The IT-drivendevelopment in

this region makesthe belt a sought-after commercialand residential

destination

Sai.Prasanna1@timesgroup.com

If there is one location inBangalore that has seen ameteoric rise, it is the

once-sleepy suburb of White-field. The rise of IT led to thedevelopment of Whitefield,which has turned into a mi-cro-market in its own right.Connectivity is through twokey routes from the city -

Whitefield Road via KR Pu-ram and Mahadevapura, andOld Airport Road leading toMarathahalli, Varthur rightup to Whitefield via White-field Main Road. Upgradationof these two routes has led tosmooth connectivity andturned them into growth cor-ridors, with locations falling

within these belts witnessingthe rise of commercial, resi-dential and retail develop-ments.

The flyover at Marathahallienhanced connectivity to thecommercial belts in the southand north through the OuterRing Road (ORR), wideningof the Varthur Road and OldMadras Road have benefittedlocations in the east. Theplanned extension of theMetro line from Byappana-halli right up to Whitefield,covering the key locations ofK R Puram, Mahadevapura,Doddanekundi and ITPL, willgive further thrust to resi-dential and retail growth.

Corporate expansionson the cards

According to KnightFrank's report 'India Real Es-tate Outlook Jan-June 2014',

the Central Busi-ness District (CBD)and off-CBD officemarkets are pre-ferred by non-ITcompanies prima-rily who look forsmaller office con-figurations. The

dearth of large spaces in theCBD and Secondary BusinessDistrict (SBD) has led to com-panies taking up space in thePeripheral Business District(PBD) markets such as White-field and the ORR, whichhave large quantum of newoffice spaces. Whitefield con-tinues to remain on the oc-

8THE TIMES OF INDIA BANGALORE SATURDAY OCTOBER 11, 2014

Tumkur Road hasderived benefit

from easy accessto the airport,connectivity

through the Metroand the elevated

expressway toNelamangala. The

proposedBangalore-

MumbaiIndustrial

Corridor will pushmore realty

development inthis belt

Sai.Prasanna1@timesgroup.com

Tumkur Road (NH-4) isthe main link from thecity towards Tumkur

and onwards to Mumbai. Be-ginning just after Yeshwan-thpur, this road is set toemerge as a key growth cor-ridor in the north-west,thanks to the proposed Ban-galore-Mumbai IndustrialCorridor and the upgradationof the highway leading toNelamangala.

Its strategic location fromthe airport is also leading todevelopment in the TumkurRoad belt.

Industrial hub

The micro-market ofTumkur Road is primarily anindustrial destination linkingthe core city with the tradi-tional and established indus-trial clusters of Peenya andYeshwanthpur. Tumkur Road,being an industrial corridor,

houses various engineeringand manufacturing facilities.Until recently, this micro-mar-ket was dominated by small-scale industries, manufac-turing units of ancillary partsfor public sector undertak-ings, automobile industry,garment industry etc. Over aperiod of time, this area alsosaw the arrival of large Indi-an and global corporates.

In early 2000s, saturation incity center locations, steadygrowth in real estate, andavailability of land for rede-velopment led to the spill-overof activity in locations suchas Yeshwanthpur and HMTLayout. In 2008, completion ofthe international airport fur-ther strengthened the demandin this region.

Strategic location, strong infrastructure

Efficient connectivity tokey locations through theTumkur Road elevated ex-pressway and the Outer RingRoad (ORR) link is changingthe primarily industrial char-acter of this region, trigger-ing demand for residential op-tions around too. The elevat-ed highway between Nela-mangala and Yeshwanthpurjunction on Tumkur Road hassignificantly improved thephysical characteristics of thearea and influenced develop-ments within 4-5 km from the

NH-4. Further, theBangalore MumbaiIndustrial Corridor(BMIC) is likely toleverage more res-idential, commer-cial, and industrial

developments.An expanding industrial

hub with large land parcels,the rise of this micro-marketcan also be attributed to im-proved connectivity throughthe NICE Ring Road to southBangalore, presence of theBangalore International Ex-hibition Center and the ele-vated expressway to the air-

GROWTH ENGINE

Whitefield -Varthur Road

cupiers' radar with 13 percentof share of the total officespace absorption in the firsthalf of 2014.

Shrinivas Rao, CEO - Asia

Pacific, Vestian Global Work-place Solutions, says, "Thecity accounts for 112 millionsqft of operational non-cap-tive office space. The micro-

markets of ORR and White-field in the PBD dominate theoffice space market with al-most an equal share of 30 per-cent each, among all others.

Today, Whitefield has 29 mil-lion sqft of operationalIT/ITeS office (non-captive)space. Existing companies inWhitefield are consolidatingand expanding their opera-tions within the region."

According to Vestian's re-search, around 1.67 millionsqft of non-captive officespace and 4.10 million sqft ofcaptive space are under con-struction in this belt. Plannednon-captive space is around20.63 million sqft and captiveoffice space is around 3.60 mil-lion sqft.

Highest absorption ofresidential units

Key residential locations inthis belt are K R Puram,Marathahalli, Kundalahalli,Mahadevapura, Varthur, andBrookefields, with develop-ment extending further up toHoskote. This belt has ap-proximately 2.75 lakh IT/ITeSprofessionals employed here.

According to Vestian Glob-al's Residential Market Report,while Bangalore north wit-nessed the highest number oflaunches, Whitefield account-ed for 18 percent of the totalunits launched. It is alsoamong the top three micro-markets that witnessed high-est absorption at 14 percent,after the north and the ORR-Sarjapur Road stretch. In theperipheral locations such asWhitefield, ORR-SarjapurRoad, Bangalore north andBannerghatta Road, the aver-age unit size ranges between1,250-2,500 sqft for apartments

and 2,500-4,500 sqft for villas.Shabeer Sait, Executive

Head of Operations, Irshad'sProperty Matters, says, "Areasin the east are doing well, es-pecially Old Airport Road,Kundalahalli, KR Puram-OldMadras Road belt, Varthur,Whitefield and Kadugodi.There is good supply as wellas demand for residential op-tions here. While the supply isconcentrated more towards op-tions in the Rs 1 crore andabove price bracket, demandis high for homes in the sub-Rs 1 crore category too."

According to research by Ir-shad's Property Matters,around Whitefield Road, theprice range for two, three andfour bedroom apartments isaround Rs 5,000-8,000 per sqft.Villas are available in therange of around Rs 10,000-12,000 per sqft. The Varthurbelt to the left of WhitefieldRoad and the Kadugodi beltwhich is to its right haveapartments at an average priceof around Rs 4,500 per sqft. Vil-las around Varthur are avail-able in the range of around Rs8,000-10,000 per sqft while therange near Kadugodi is aroundRs 10,000-12,000 per sqft. Theroad leading from Hope Farmtowards Chikka Tirupathi hasapartments at around Rs 4,000-4,500 per sqft.

More mall space planned

Whitefield has witnessedthe highest mall space activi-ty in the past few years. Ac-cording to Vestian Global's re-search, this micro-market ac-

counts for 33 percent of the to-tal operational mall space inthe city. It is expected to seecompletion of 0.87 million sqftof mall space in the next threeyears. Around 1.58 million sqftof mall space has been plannedin this belt.

GROWTHCENTRE IN THE EAST THE RISE OF IT

LED TO THEDEVELOPMENT

OF WHITEFIELD,WHICH HAS

TURNED INTO ASOUGHT-AFTER

MICRO-MARKETWITH ITS WIDE

CHOICE INPROPERTY

WHITEFIELDBELT HAS A HIGH

DENSITY OF HIGH STREET

AND MALLDEVELOPMENT

WHICH AREADDING VALUE

TO ITSRESIDENTIAL

LOCALITIES

port. An integrated townshippresent in this micro-market

has also led to appreciation inthe value of this region.

According to Shrinivas Rao,CEO - Asia Pacific, Vestian

Global Workplace Solutions,"Since late 2005, Tumkur Roadand its surrounding areas havebeen witnessing significantaugmentation and improve-ment in terms of infrastruc-ture and connectivity. Prox-imity to Yeshwanthpur andHebbal provides a link to theORR. With Metro connectivi-ty now, the real estate scenariohas further improved here."

Market for mid-range,budget homes

Prominent localities in thisregion are Hessaraghatta, Jala-halli, Abbigere, Nelamangalaand Magadi Road, among oth-ers. Research by LJ Hooker In-dia indicates that the averagearea of a two-bedroom apart-ment is in the range of 950-1,200 sqft while the average sizeof a three-bedroom apartmentis in the range of 1,250-1,500sqft. Nelamangala has two-bed-room apartments for around

Rs 30 lakhs and three-bedroomapartments for around Rs 53lakhs. Two-bedroom apart-ments are available for ap-proximately Rs 35 lakhs andthree-bedroom apartments areavailable for around Rs 49lakhs around Tumkur Road.While two-bedroom flats areavailable for approximately Rs41 lakhs, three-bedroom apart-ments come to around Rs 58lakhs around Jalahalli.

According to research byVestian Global, many Grade-A developments are locatedalong Tumkur Road, fromYeshwanthpur up to the ORR.Till date, about 17 residentialapartment projects have beenlaunched and the expected sup-ply is around 5,100 units in thismicro-market on a cumulativebasis. This micro-market holdspotential for residential de-velopment, especially in thebudget and mid-segment cate-gories.

Bangalore-MumbaiIndustrial Corridor

According to Shrinivas Rao,the Mumbai-Bangalore In-dustrial Corridor will impactthe industrial activity alongTumkur Road positively, trans-forming it into a growth cor-ridor in terms of residential,commercial and industrial in-frastructure. Property pricesare likely to appreciate be-tween 10-12 percent per annumin the short term.

GROWTH ENGINE

Tumkur Road

THE ACTIVITYALONG TUMKUR

ROAD, BOTH INCOMMERCIAL AND

RESIDENTIALPROPERTY

SEGMENTS, OPENSUP A WIDER

CHOICE FOR BOTHHOMEBUYERS AND

INVESTORS ALIKE

THE INDUSTRIALBELTS ARE ALSO

PUSHING RENTALVALUES IN THE

VICINITY

PREMIUM INDUSTRIAL BELTDRIVES RESIDENTIAL MARKET

VARTHUR ROAD: RETAIL

DEVELOPMENT ON UPTREND

WHITEFIELD: A LOCALITY WITH HIGH GROWTH POTENTIAL

TUMKUR HIGHWAY JUNCTION: CONNECTIVITY IS A

MAJOR FACTOR IN THE REAL ESTATE SCENARIO IN THIS

PART OF THE CITY

TUMKUR ROAD: EFFICIENT CONNECTIVITY PUSHES INDUSTRIAL GROWTH

VARTHUR: AN EMERGING RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL DESTINATION

R Rajgopal

Pics: R Rajgopal