Chennai, like any other metropolitan city, has considerable growth in realty sector with many apartments in Perumbakkam, OMR and Velachery areas being promoted by famous builders.
The major difference between the flats being constructed in cities like Mumbai and Delhi, and the flats in Chennai is that 1BHKs are not preferred much in Chennai unlike other metros. People in Mumbai and Delhi prefer buying 1BHKs mainly because of the high pricing of properties. In Chennai that is not the case as there are many advantages in the realty market of Chennai when compared to other cities.
First of all Chennai is an end-user market meaning that most of the people buying apartments in Chennai are the users themselves and since they want to move in with their family or they look into the future growth, they usually prefer 2BHKs or 3BHKs. A typical Chennai buyer prefers to buy at least a 2BHK unit as it would take care of the growing family in future. However, with the advent of the IT, there has been an influx of young population in the city. This might lead to a demand in this segment albeit it will take a long time as most youngsters prefer rental accommodations.
Pricing is also a main reason why people may not prefer 1BHKs in Chennai because, normally the difference between a 1BHK property and 2BHK property is not much in Chennai unlike cities like Mumbai where there is a vast difference in price. For instance, on OMR, which is probably one of the most supplied localities in Chennai, the difference between the price of a 1 and 2BHK unit is somewhere between 5-7 lakh. If a 1BHK apartment can cost Rs 20-28 lakh, along the OMR, a 2BHK would cost Rs 25-35 lakh.
As demand in the segment is low, developers have also stayed away from constructing these units. Other than the 10 per cent mandatory norm of constructing EWS (Economically Weaker Section) units, developers in medium and large scale projects choose not to construct 1 BHK apartments mainly due to lack of robust demand for such homes.
