With Bangalore rising fast on the Indian horizon, IT companies started looking towards the suburbs.
The last five years has seen villages on the outskirts of Bangalore transform into cosmopolitan areas.
East Bangalore's Whitefield, Sarjapur, HSR and Marathahalli can now be described as the Young Bangalore. Sarjapur is one such example which has seen a complete turnaround from a neglected isolated place to being home to a major population of Silicon Valley techies.
Major makeover
With sprawling IT hubs, brand new flyovers and super-luxury living destinations, the sleepy village has undergone a major makeover over the past decade.
The Sarjapur-Hosur Road is one of the busiest in the city with over two lakh employees taking the route every day.
With the corporate gateway opened up by Wipro, the real estate boom on Sarjapur Road was flagged off in the early 1990s and the IT sector began shifting attention from Electronic City and started looking at Sarjapur Road as large parcels of land were available then. In the end-90s came up the Marathahalli-Sarjapur Outer Ring Road (ORR) which boosted connectivity to Sarjapur Road tremendously. IT companies sprung up on the ORR and Sarjapur Road, making it a hot belt after ITPL.
Early birds
Says R. Balaji who deals with property solutions, “To cater to the IT populace, builders started residential projects on Sarjapur Road. Some of the prominent ones which brought a revolution in the real estate sector on Sarjapur Road in early 2000 are Sobha Topaz in Bellandur, Sun City at ORR, Springfileds of UKN properties, Krystal's row houses & apartment complexes, and large plotted development by Vakil Housing.”
There was an exodus of granite and stone dealers from Bannerghatta Road to Sarjapur because of the proliferation of housing units nearby.
Adds Balaji, “Around 2004, BDA acquired property in Iblur on Sarjapur Road for layouts, which gave a fillip to real estate. Today, the 10 km stretch of Sarjapur Road has it all — commercial buildings, premium villas, golf course surrounding houses, row houses, apartment complexes and retail malls. In the stretch before the railway track, there is vibrant residential, retail and office space.”
Prices
“The current pricing for a villa on Sarjapur Road is between Rs. 1.5 crore and Rs. 2 crore depending on the location and the project itself, and genuine approvable land can be bought for around Rs. 3000-4000 per sq.ft. Built-up residential property is around Rs. 3500 + per sq.ft, while residential rentals are around Rs.12-18 per sq.ft. and commercials stand at around Rs. 35-70 per sq.ft.
Initially there were a few factory outlets in Marathahalli and then came the Innovative Multiplex, one of the first to hit Bangalore with its four grand screens. Soon, crowning the factory outlets came the Brand factory, and eventually MegaMart drawing Bangaloreans to the Outer Ring Road which no more seemed far away. Now, there are countless cool hangouts and things are set to get fancier with major hospitality names such as Hilton and Shangrila coming up in the area.
With Bangalore Central setting up an outlet at Sarjapur, residents from Whitefield, Marathahalli and HSR Layout have a shopping experience with over 1,000 national and international brands spread over 3.25 lakh sq. ft., making it the largest Central in the country. And to make East Bangaloreans stick to their locality, there are movie theatres, food courts and fancy dining at this ‘happening' mall.
