before buying property

Things to consider before buying properties in Pune

If you hire our services to purchase right property for you in Pune, then we take care of all these points. In case for some reason you are not able to hire our services, it is worth keeping these points in mind as you search and evaluate properties in Pune:
You
• Your risk tolerance
• Cashflow situation before and after buying to the property – is it sustainable, stability aspects
• Purpose – self use, renting, resell, investment
• Move in expectations – planning to move shortly or in future
• Consider renting option if you are undecided or don't know long term plans
• Tax implications when you sell, funding (NRE account) and need to repatriate the proceeds
• Worst case scenario - think if you can withstand 20% drop in the prices after you purchase the property or what if your income is impacted negatively
• Although it is not a must for you to visit property prior to the purchase (if you have POA), we strongly recommend visiting property and making yourself familiar with it and surroundings. Plan your trip keeping in view where you are in overall process, and how close are to the decision making, type of property (e.g. plots tend to take more time)
Builder/developer track record
• Construction quality
• On time delivery
• Transparency and flexibility
• Any legal issues, pending litigation, illegal activities/ violations
• Does the builder/developer have website (generally it shows more commitment vs. fly by night operations)
• Does the builder/developer participate in online blogs, groups, discussion forums, and entertain online communications (its good thing, shows transparency
• Transparency in dealings, treatment, flexibility in accommodating customers
• Did the builder/developer, partners operate under different name or operating under different name in parallel (sometimes they do it to get rid of bad publicity, hide from allegations, press)
Project and property
• Land ownership and title - should be clear title, free from litigations, developer must have undisputed rights to develop/construct
• Approval status by corporation, collector, gram panchayat, or other applicable local authority
• Approval by major banks for loans
• Age of the property if not a new construction (loan amount significantly goes down with age)
• Land status: NA, Agriculture, protected zone
• Phase of the project (e.g. 1st phase, 2nd phase, etc)
• Type of project - residential, commercial, mixed
• Possession date
• Open space to constructed area ratio
• Is seller ready for registration right away or are there any constraints, wait time, reasons for the same
• Visit property at three different time - rush hour, in the evening, and late night (after 10 PM) - this will give you better idea of the surroundings and any hardships in commuting - avoid using your own vehicle, use public transportation and rickshaws - don't rely on site visit arranged by developer that does not give you idea of what it means to be self commute and what your visitors would have to go through. If going on your vehicle, avoid using bikes, bike ride can hide issues with four wheeler driving and suitability of roads
• Green aspects if you are interested - rain water harvesting, solar water heaters
• Number of units in the projects and the phase you are looking for, and breakup (e.g. how many 1BHK, how many 2BHK, etc)
• Project completion date – this may be different than possession date for multi-phase projects
• Unit mix: Does it have too much variation like 1 BHKs and 3BHKs, row houses, bungalows. Ideally the variation should be minimal (else there will be imbalance and constant tension due to different demographic mix)
• Ownership pattern and mix: Check who owns properties in the same project? Are there too many NRIs and investors – if so, it might be difficult to run the society. Is there any concentration in terms of groups (e.g. many units owned by employees of a particular company, people of particular profession, etc). Such concentration might make the particular group more powerful in day to day matters of society, and it might become difficult to live there due to such concentrations.
• Land ownership owned by society, leased, townships, freehold
• Landlord status: Check if any units are allotted to original landlord/land owners (it is common practice to allocate some land/units to the original landlord, that is part of negotiation between developer and the landlords). Generally, the landlords behave like owners of the entire land even after they sold the rights to the developer and don't respect rights of the other members of the society. Because they sold their land they have too much money power, and are influential with developer and local authorities. So, try to avoid such projects, or at least stay away from the original landlords.
• Loading factor
• Terrace, dry balcony charge basis (charged at 50% or 100% area, some builders have started charging 100%!)
• Net effective rate per sq ft of carpet area after considering agreement value, parking, electric meter, society formation, legal charges, registration, stamp duty, service tax, Value Added Tax (VAT). This will be true apple to apple rate comparison.
• Parking space (open, closed)
• Terrace and balcony (including dry balcony) area relative to other charged area
• Common walls
• Privacy
• One time and ongoing maintenance charges
• Amenities
• Club membership fees and deposits
• Payment schedule
• Vastushastra compliance or any other architectural compliance that you want to follow/ believe in
• Air, ventilation, and sunlight
• Water availability (corporation water, bore well, well, tanker, etc)
• Power backup provision: inverters, generators and if those are charged separately or included in the base price
• Piped gas
• Air pollution, noise levels
• Green aspects if you are interested - rain water harvesting, solar water heaters
Surrounding Area
• If you are planning to re-locate to the area, it is highly recommended to rent in the same area before you buy to get better idea of the area and problems if any
• Talk with people staying nearby and get their opinion about the area
• Get idea of rental market in the same area, and available for sale, take inventory - will give idea of demand-supply situation
• City or local authority development plans (roads, widening roads, etc) and how they impact the property you are interested in (favorable and unfavorable impacts)
• Nearest landmarks
• Nearby areas that attract crowd, traffic (mandai/mandi, movie theaters, malls)
• Demography of surrounding area
• Proximity to grocery shops, daily needs
• Nearby schools, colleges, hospitals, doctors, medical stores, markets
• Road conditions, time it takes to reach from key land marks (such as rickshaw stands, bus stands, railway station, airport)
• Potential or actual water logging during rainy season
• Polluting factors such as industries, proximity to high traffic road/highway
• Surrounding open area - watch for this because whatever good views, ventilation, sunlight will all be gone if the surrounding open area is developed by same or another builder, find out if it is reserved, owned by developer, or available for sale. Many a times, construction from subsequent phases of the same project block view, air, and sunlight, so watch for the same

Source
http://nripro.com/dp/property_evaluation_points