Mumbai is the world's least affordable home market

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Bloomberg research shows a 100-square-metre luxury residence in Mumbai costs about $US1.14 million, or 308 times the average annual income in India, based on calculations from a housing index compiled using 63 markets by Knight Frank LLP and income estimates of the US Central Intelligence Agency for purchasing-power parity in 2011.

“There are big differences in wealth levels in emerging markets compared to the developed world, which is part of the course for economic development,” Bailey said in an e-mailed response to questions. “In the first phase of growth some people make big fortunes, it takes time for this to trickle down as the middle class develop and generate their own wealth.”

This guys have no clue on why prices are so high in Slumbai. It is politician, builder, mafia nexus which does not let prices down and does not create infrastructure to increase land supply.

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Chennai - GST road land value rises rapidly

Chennai, the laggard in the property bubble has finally caught up with Bangalore and other IT cities like Pune and Noida. Guideline values of agricultural land on the fringes of the city have been revised on an average of upto 270%. Hindu has more on this. 32L documents have been registered in FY2011. By this comparison the number or registrations stands at 4,000 per month. This just shows the scale of affordability in Mumbai as compared to Chennai. 

Jumping on this trend Artha property, an arm of the Times Group has launched villa's off GST road, in close proximity to Mahindra World City. Gives the reach of Times of India full page advertisements coupled with Artha's marketing savvy, I am expecting huge positive response to this property.  Added to this the Times Group can post surreptitious  marketing articles likes this which promote their own self interest it won't be too long that these 230 villa's will be sold in no time.

I expect that the area around Artha meadows sees rapid development in the next few years, as investors and end users join in herds in anticipation of double digit returns. Areas like Adyar are over priced and OMR is flooded with investors which have pushed land prices way to high for anyone to make money in this high interest rate environment. GST road appears to solve the problem of affordability at the expense of a longer commute. For those working around GST this cannot come at a much better time.

Disclaimer : 

I have been a fan of this area for some time due to its low prices and high potential and some of the investments made by me few years ago might see some fruit in the years to come.

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