Coimbatore next stop on IT map; realty to boom

Coimbatore's real estate market is set to change, with IT parks, hotels and malls being planned. But if you want to invest in property here you just might have missed the bus. 

Suressh Menda has been in Coimbatore's property market for the past 20 years. This director of Coimbatore-based Presidium Constructions says the market here has never been so excited by hopes of an IT boom.

Menda says, "Housing will go up tremendously, correlated with that activity like mall-building, will also go up. You require hotels for industry to be placed there, so it's a whole cycle that is going to take place linked to the ITES industry here."

Over the next two-and-a-half years, 5 to 10 million sq. ft. will be developed for IT. Three dedicated IT special economic zones are expected. Besides, hotels will take up about 10 lakh sq. ft. of land. The Taj, Meridien and Kennilworth are reported to have acquired land for their projects. Coimbatore also looks set to change the way it shops.

He says, "Avanashi Road is at the center of high-street shopping in Coimbatore, but like this city, this road does not have a single shopping mall. All that is going to change over the next two to three years, when four million sq. ft. of retail space will come up on either side of this road."

In anticipation of all this activity, property prices have already increased by 300%, in some cases. Now experts say a correction is expected.

N Ananthanarayanan, Regional Director, JLL-Meghraj, says, "What's happened is that Coimbatore had a sympathy rise along with Chennai, but with prices in Chennai itself flattening out, it looks like Coimbatore will also flatten out."

Like Chennai, Coimbatore's population mix will also change. Experts say between 25,000 and 30,000 IT workers will come into Coimbatore in the next two or three years. That will keep firm the demand for quality housing.