Blog Smart Socho

The Concept of Buying a Futuristic Home

  • 9th Oct 2017
  • 2925
  • 0
The Concept of Buying a Futuristic Home

Article by Tejas Jhaveri
Chief Strategy Officer, PropertyCrow.com


The Concept of Buying a Futuristic Home :

1. Time Horizon : Different Families, Different Sizes of Families, Different Needs of Families, All come down to one point. How can we buy a home, which caters to the requirement of our present and future needs? Yes absolutely, home buying is a not a single person's decision, its a Family decision. Atleast a Family decision! Why do I say Atleast a Family decision is because A person being Psychology a Social Human has a practise of discussing buying decisions with various associates likes Friends, Colleagues, Relatives. All will have a different opinion.

Different thought process mixed into one Family Decision of buying a Home. Its an easy figure to digest that 55% of Indian Household Savings goes towards buying a Home. Why so? Because Food, Clothing and Shelter are the basic needs of Man. India has 18million demand for homes in EWS (Economically Weaker Section of the Society) and LIG (Low Income Group). It does indicate that most of the focus has been on HIG (High Income Group). We clearly see an imbalance. Anyway, figures apart, A minimum time Horizon of 15-20 years should be considered while buying a home.

Probably, it makes one envision the needs and demands of his family in the next 15-20 years and whether the present development is sufficient enough to cater to the requirement for that particular time horizon. I should say even home loans have a duration of 15-20 years or even more. Home is something, you don't buy every now and than. It engulfs the entire savings of a household now a days. We have good decent examples of areas that have changed faces in the last 15years. For Eg : Mahavir Nagar in Kandivali West, Thakur Village and Thakur Complex in Kandivali East and many other similar areas which have seen development.

2. Reasons for Buying a Home : Family Expansion is one of the major reasons for buying a home. We do witness a generational shift. The Concept of us and our 2 children has led to the housing demand. There are few who foresee the future by saying a 2Bhk is not sufficient as my kid is growing, the requirement shifts to 3Bhk for having a separate room for the kid, guests and couple. You do envision your children to be technologically advanced than what you are today? Yes! Of Couse. Thus, it leads us to the question of having a home which uses advanced technologies or which is made of advanced technologies? The optimal answer could be probably both.

3. The Green Living Concept : It generally starts from your own home. There are people who have made their entire home eco-friendly. Right from materials used in construction, solar panels (electricity purpose), electrical appliances used within the home, rainwater harvesting, solid waste management and sewage treatment plants. There are few astonishing examples of how these people have been able to overcome obstacles and have a home which few can imagine?

Recently, I read an article saying the Municipal Corporation has issued notices to a number of co-operative housing societies in Mumbai to have a solid waste management within their premises. Currently, it has 7600metric tonnes per day of dumping being done, which the municipal corporation intends to bring it down to 5000metric tonnes per day.


4. Lets look at what all modes of Green Building concept can be used at home :
IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) : IGBC gives certifications to Projects Under-Development whether it adheres to the Green Building Concept. A definition of Green Building is "A green building is one which uses less water, optimises energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building." Picking up from the definition, lets look at the points below :

a. Less Water : Water although available in abundance, is still a scarce resource because it needs to be treated to make it available for use. Sea Water been saline cannot be used for our day to day purpose. Scientists have been working on finding ways to make this water usable. Its still a work in progress. There are many societies in Mumbai which does not receive water for daily use. Tankers are used to fulfil the requirement. Ultimately, it does hurt the pocket of the homeowner in terms of higher maintenance charges per month. A building which uses less water obviously optimises the best use of water available for the residents.

b. Optimises Energy Efficiency : Something a homeowner will find a delight to see is that his electricity bills running down, which is right now a dream to consider. There are quite a few societies who still do it. Even within the home LED lights makes more sense than the traditional one's used. It simply gives you a running time of more than 5 times the traditional one and uses less electricity too.

The television runs several ads of Syska Led Lights being hosted by Mr. Irfan Khan, which helps residents reduce their electricity bills. The recent one is a hilarious one comparing the Syska Led Bulb with a Non-Syska Traditional Bulb. Syska Led Light runs 5 times more than the one on offer and pay less electricity bill than the traditional one. A simple thought conveyed beautifully.

c. Conserve Natural Resources : Natural Resources are air, water and land. Air is available for free and its getting polluted day by day. It is even affecting our Ozone Layer, Health and causing Diseases. A Green Building which gives you fresh air without being affected by the outside pollutants. Today, we do have paints which can help our home have fresh air. Most of us would have seen the Deepika Padukone ad of Asian Paints. Its a concept of Air Purifying Paint. The trend is becoming clear slowly. Most of us are going towards advanced technologies to help address our problems.

d. Generates Less Waste : Solid Waste Management as mentioned earlier is causing BMC to come out with new rules to help reduce the waste generated by Societies and it can be treated within the premises. Garbage from these places include food wastes, plastics, paper, glass, leather, cardboard, metals, yard wastes, ashes and special wastes like bulky household items like electronics, tires, batteries, old mattresses and used oil.


Most homes have garbage bins where they can throw away their solid wastes in and later the bin is emptied by a garbage collecting firm or person for treatment. If the waste that can be recycled is treated by the Society and the rest is dumped, will help address the problem at present. This will reduce the amount of waste being generated in the city and dumped at the dump yards.

e. Healthier Spaces for Occupants : There is already plenty of evidence that a green building is healthy for its occupants, more so than a conventional one. And this makes sense too: For Example, A Green Building can use more natural ventilation which improves indoor air quality and a green building can incorporate more daylighting which improves productivity. As of today, we have paints which lasts in all weather conditions, we expect a building's life to be not more than 25-35 years, a building which gives good cross ventilation. This should be the natural progression.

To add to the above, even for construction now a days Developers are using Fly Ash Brick (FAB) and AAC Blocks for construction owing to their heat, fire and sound resistance quality and durability. This does add years of life to a building rather reducing the duration a building can hold for, thus providing resistance against normal wear and tear which happens due to climate change every 4 months a year. Just like our bodies which at times fall ill due to weather changes, hence we build its immunity to stay strong. Healthier construction techniques does add to the immunity of a building.

There are various ways in which one can make a home or buy a home with the latest technologies. Although costs are involved, it depends on the Financial viability too. Ending my this article with few facts and figures given below :

With a modest beginning of 20,000 sq.ft. green built-up area in the country in the year 2003, today (as on 26 September 2017) more than 4,289 Green Buildings projects coming up with a footprint of over 4.68 Billion sq.ft are registered with the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), out of which 1182 Green Building projects are certified and fully functional in India. This growth has been possible with the participation of all stakeholders in the green building movement.


WRITTEN BY

An MBA in Marketing from Alliance University Bangalore, Tejas also has a 2 year hands on experience in Real Estate Residential Sales across affordable, luxury and premium segments. His stint with a leading Real Estate Developer in Bangalore has helped him hone his client-centric skills with a fo... read more


Comments

Add Your Comment
v7on9