What was once a dusty, residential- industrial belt with pollution hazards in tow has now turned into a seller’s paradise. New road connectivity and consequent proximity to the cyber hub of Madhapur has made Kukatpally area a functional, dream home.

An unprecedented Information Technology boom coupled with rapid development of infrastructure in the city has sent land rates and rentals skyrocketing in Kukatpally.

Such is the demand for houses in Kukatpally, which a few years ago was but a sleepy little colony with few basic amenities to boast of, that software engineers are ready to shell down six months rent as advance payment. Truly, a trend unheard of in the city till date.

As the locality is just few kilometres away from the cyber hub at Madhapur, where several IT companies have sprang up, techies prefer tolive here rather than go for the plush bungalows of Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Somajiguda, Punjagutta and Marredpally areas where traffic congestion abounds.

One of the factors that contributed to the sudden rise in rental prices is the new Spinal Road that connects Hitec City main road with Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU).

“Due to the new access, it hardly takes us 10 minutes to reach the Hitec city from the JNTU side,” says U. Shiva Prasad, a resident of Phase-III in Kukatpally Housing Board Colony. Earlier, reaching Madhapur from here would have entailed a long and circuitous route touching Miyapur and Hafeezpet.

Several new ventures grounded by leading real estate companies have supplemented the boom here.

And the entire area appears set for a major facelift what with the announcement of a multiplex theatre, a star hotel and shopping mall by Madhucon Projects Limited.

This is to come up on a nine-acre site located on Mumbai National Highway NH-9 right in front of the JNTU campus. City-based Indu Projects Limited is coming with an integrated township “Fortune Fields” at Kukatpally.

Houses for rent are not easily available in certain areas like Phase-VI and IX. Employees going abroad on an official assignment, say, for a couple of months, prefer to hold the premises by paying up rent for the period of absence rather than vacate the place.

Taking advantage of the growing demand, many a house-owner has jacked up his rental. “For instance, house-owners earlier used to collect Rs.2,500 to 3,000 as rent, but they are now collecting Rs.8,000,” an industrialist K. Chandra Mohan Reddy, a resident of Phase-IX in Kukatpally, said.

“This area is well connected by train services from the Hitec City and bus facility from Kukatpally main road. It also has hospitals, cinema theatres, bus depot, shopping malls and restaurants catering to the needs of residents who are mostly settlers from different regions in the State,” says an official of the Andhra Pradesh Housing Board.

Purchasing a flat or land in Kukatpally is fast turning out to be a Herculean task.

A fully furnished duplex flat commands a price tag of Rs.1.5 crore while an ordinary double-bed room flat is for Rs.25 lakhs.

And as the demand spirals, the real estate developers are sparing no effort to get hold of some land here. A mere 200 square yards of plot commands a price of Rs. 50 lakhs these days.

Sources:

M. SRINIVAS, The Hindu