Townships - A Classic Chicken And Egg Story: Which Came First?

By Author: Ashil Patel
Total Articles: 33
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Townships are mushrooming around cities and are growing popular with time. People who want to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the city life and avoid the rush and the pollution opt for townships. There are many beautiful townships that promise open spaces and a range of amenities that are coming up now. Of course, there are small and big townships but the framework for each is the same. We fit all townships in the same definition. They need to be more than 100 acres in area. They are planned areas that are part of a bigger city, not to be confused with towns which are usually independent of cities. And most importantly they need to have their own amenities to make life comfortable for the dweller.

There are certain requirements for a township.

A township can be defined as an area that is part of a larger city area which is at least 100 acres and which has at least a few amenities such as-
a. A school
b. A hospital
c. A multiplex and other recreation
d. Places of worship
e. Grocery stores
f. Transportation services
g. Security – round the clock

Of course, ...
... some good builders are throwing in additional amenities such as pipeline gas connection, petrol pumps, beauty salons, gymnasiums, community areas, clubs and jogging tracks, restaurants, malls – basically a self contained area that makes going to the main city redundant while providing clean and beautiful ambience.
Having these amenities is not enough. These services need to be viable to run. For example, if you are a vegetable vendor and get 10 Kg of potatoes to sell and then nobody buys from you for the next few days, the potatoes will get spoilt and you will make a loss. So, what is needed is demand and supply at the same time for all essential services to get into operation and be viable at the same time. And for a buyer too these services are required. For example, if you shift to a new township you would need vegetables regularly so you need one that has a vegetable vendor. Or where will your food supplies come from? This is primary on any buyer’s mind when he opts to settle for a property in any township.

There are three prominent townships that are coming up across Ahmedabad. They are planning to deal with this problem in their unique ways. Let us see what the Adani Township has planned. Their idea is to solve the ‘chicken and egg’ situation by creating job opportunities. The first and the most major step are to shift the ‘Adani’ headquarter there. Suppose they create about 5000 jobs in the township, enough people will be attracted to live there. The township will be self contained besides being self sufficient. Then the township will be independent on the city in the true sense of the term.

The Godrej Township, on the other hand, has planned to give monopoly rights to all services for the initial years. They have planned well in advance about the future problems and come up with ideas to make it more viable for the vendors to run their operations there. This will attract the vendors to start their businesses there. Because getting good vendors to open shops in upcoming townships is not easy and this kind of policy will attract the best in the business to come there to open shops. Of course this is a win-win situation for all, the builder, the buyers and the vendors. Assured sales for vendors along with availability for buyers will definitely make the scheme popular for all to follow.

Applewoods Township is very close to the main city area and residents can easily commute there so the problem of being removed from the main city does not apply here. Many city dwellers do not want to go too far away from the city life and this township will be popular among them who want to be far from the madding crowd but not too far. However, even they have arranged for the basic amenities so that the residents are not troubled in any way. This is the best way to ensure sale of units at a good price and get assured returns for investment too. Working on the principle that for daily requirements one should not be expected to travel to nearby areas, townships are trying to introduce new ways to make them more lucrative.

If you are an investor, you may not be concerned about the availability of essential services in the township you are thinking of investing in. You may be quite floored by the beautiful township and all that it promises. You may be lured by the open spaces and the affordability of the properties. In fact since you are not thinking of living there, at least not in the immediate future, services provided in the township will not be on your list of priorities. But if you are planning to rent out your apartment or resell it at a later date, your prospective tenant or buyer will be on the lookout for these services. And a tenant or a buyer who want to reside there will definitely want these services otherwise it will be very inconvenient to live there. Your rent or sale amount would be affected by whether these essential amenities are available nearby.

Basically, the best time to invest in a township is not when the buildings are under construction and not even when they are ready to be occupied, rather when the essential services are ready and operational. This will help to solve the chicken and egg conundrum to a large extent and make it viable for vendors, builders, brokers and above all, the buyers. So from any point of view you see it, arranging for amenities and making them viable is a requisite for any township, new or old. During the initial stage of planning this fact needs to figure to make the township successful.