Ever since the expansion of corporates and MNCs setting up operations in Mahindra World City and on GST road, there has been a sudden spurt in the number of techies and other skilled professionals employed in and around the area leading to a surge in demand for rental accommodation.
The major work centres on GST are Mahindra World City on a sprawling land area of 1550 acres, Shriram Gateway, an SEZ and L&T Arun Excello’s Estancia. While the residential units coming up on IT corridor caters to the demand of techies on OMR, those employed on GST road will have to invariably look at city areas or other suburbs.
There are quality housing units like the Akshaya Belvedere, L&T Arun Excello’s Estancia, Mahindra Lifespace Developers’ Iris, Hallmark Infrastructure’s Hill County and South India Shelters Safaa but they are rather limited to bridge the growing mismatch between demand and supply in housing.
For instance, in the Mahindra City alone, Infosys has a land area of 129 acres and operational space of 4 million sqft, Capgemini with 25 acres land and operational space of 1 million sqft, Wipro Technologies with 92 acres land and development potential of 4 million sqft and Mastek with 16 acres of land and development of potential 0.7 million sqft.
Infosys alone currently employs 7000 people in Mahindra World City. The demand is getting aggravated from Capgemini in Shriram Gateway and other companies in the corridor. The expansion of these enterprises and the influx of more professionals in the coming years would necessitate the need for improved housing stock.
According to industry sources, OMR and GST road together have 6 non-captive IT/ITES SEZs with 83 per cent occupancy levels. And GST road has 5.1 million sqft of operational captive space including Shriram Gateway and L&T Estancia. It is said that the IT/ITES companies in Mahindra World City would continue with their captive units in the coming years.
Though GST road has airport connectivity and a well-developed business infrastructure, it lacks social infrastructure including retail malls and entertainment options. But Aerens Gold Souk in Vandalur and Abhirami mall in Mamandur may change the skyline of the retail scenario in the area. Besides, malls are coming up in Shriram Gateway and Estancia apart from Laurel Mall.
V Nagarajan
Property Consultant
Source: http://content.magicbricks.com/chennai-gst-road-rental-demand-rises
