what are good upper middle class places to live and commute to work from

palbadri

My husband and I currently live in New York and are thinking of moving to Bombay/ Mumbai. We have not lived in bombay before, I prefer to call it Bombay still and ever since I was a young girl n lived in Delhi, i wanted to move there. finally we have a chance to move and my husband's work is likely to be based in Mahape, Navi mumbai, whereas my work place could be anywhere from lower parel to church gate area.. ( not sure yet)

I noticed on this forum that a lot of people recommend living in Bandra and Andheri west but I checked on the Map and they seem awfully far considerin the mumbai traffic and trains are crazy during peak hours. I was thinking perhaps chembur seems close to both Mahape and downtown side of bombay? Any thoughts are welcome.. my other option is Powai, however that seems v far fom my work place...

Also- I read posts from people which estimated monthly living expenses from 6-7 Lakhs? Isn't that a bit unrealistic.. I ve lived in NewYork for 5 years and a very comfortable lifestyle but I think earning 6-7 laks in india for anyone who is not working at the top rung of the ladder seems a bit hard... I would say approx 4 is still possible for many couples who r well placed... Do we really that kind of money to live in bombay?

I would appreciate if more people discuss that here.. I really thought the gentleman who gave those figures was on another thread was speaking of exact NY/ London Lifestyle and yeah I dont ve a kid so am not thinking of schools and education bit..

Also- an observation.. I checked various sites and on an average rent of some v fancy places seems to be 45k to 60k... so the 1 lakh figure I read in the estimate of living expenses on that thread seems quite absurd.. though i am sure it exists.

Looking fwd to all feedbacks

rajered

How would you and your husband travel to work?
Chembur could be a good option. You can get options of monthly rent from Rs 10,000/- to Rs 25,000/-. You would have to pay a deposit of around Rs 1,00,000/-.
The rend would wary on what you want 1 bedroom hall kitchen, 2 BHK. The deposit is normally a years rent.
It would be closer to Mhape and Lower Parel (around an hour with traffic), but Churchgate would be a bit too far.

Boston123

Yes, it is true that rentals in Bombay, especially South Bombay can run equivalent to or more than Manhattan!. If it is not unusual for a average ( small apt.)rental in Manhattan to run $ 2500 to 3000 per month, you are looking at Rs 1.25 Lac to Rs 1.5 Lacs in South Bombay.. and the municipal services will not be close to what you might get in NY City.
And yes, you will people living here with lower incomes, but who may have bought these flats, ages ago.
Have you considered buying a flat, with the expectation of a capital gain when you decide to move? I heard that the State Bank of India had more money than they knew what to do with( huge inflow of deposits in recent months)...and are looking to make loans.

Raghu.Kumar

Hi ,

The messages posted about the high rentals in Bandra is not wrong technically. Barring the local mumbaiwallas who have their own properties, Bandra is a up market residential locality and mostly preferred by Expats, The rentals for a 2 bedroom apartment would start from 2 lakhs upwards not to mention of the steep security deposits.

Chembur is a good place, but again if your office would be located on the Parel route then its a different ball game as you would find it very difficult to commute as you would need to change trains. I have attached the link of the Mumbai City/Suburban train map and you can see the red lines, green and blue lines. ( in additon to yellow and Purple )

http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/mumbai/mumbai_rail.htm


Chembur is on the blue line so as Navi mumbai. I suggest you consider matunga or Dadar as you can easily take a share cab or even if its by train only a couple of stops and even bus would be convenient as it would be only a straight road towards Parel and beyond. I am sure your husband would have a car at his disposal and he can easily commute to Mahape within 45 min to 1 hour. Just see the map, ( kings Circle ) near matunga and he has just to follow the blue line to Vashi and thereafter to his office. The roads are wide and though the traffic would be heavy, the traffic moves on. I have commuted from Ghatgopar to Koparkhairane (Ref Blue - Yellow line ) by car and did not see it an issue. Except you would need to get a monthly pass at the toll naka at before Vashi.

Another option would be to look at staying in Seawoods, ( check the 2nd link below ) the most popular apartment complex in the whole of Navi Mumbai. You can hop on to a train which starts from Vashi Station and get down at Kings Circle and take a taxi ( shared or single )

So it all depends on how much you can stretch but it would be big difference betweeen New York trains and Mumbai trains. i would strongly suggest you use taxis and buses as appropriately.
http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/mumbai/mumbai_rail.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navi_Mumbai

If you are looking at Chembur, Dadar , Matunga or Ghatgopar then you can easily get a good accommodation for less than 75 K and use the rest of your money to buy some assets whenever you guys want.

Best Regards, Raghu

__________________
S.Raghu Kumar
sahana_kumar@yahoo.com

palbadri

hi- Thanks for the feedback. I am looking from Dadar area onwards till ville parle area..what is the best way of finding the apartment? through agent? or are there any forums, websites where individuals post options...

Raghu.Kumar

Hi Palbadri,

There are many agents. A few ways to approach this is to look at local classifieds. Check out Mumbai Mirror, Mid Day and even the Times of India where landlords advertise directly.

The second one is to check out a few websites like www.magicbricks.com and www.99acres.com

99 acres seems to be very useful atleast you would be able to get many choices within a few seconds of search.

The third option is to go through agents , small agents and also destination services providers.

Both the agents as well as destination service providers would charge a brokerage between 1 month's rent to 45 days and you would need to negotiate it to atleast 1 month much before you avail their services and go on house inspection visits.

Let me know the budget you have in mind and I shall see what i can suggest further. If you want contact details of some service providers, i can post it here next time. By the way, when are you coming to Mumbai. Would you come on a pre view trip to check out the residence, finalise then return to the US and come back or would you come to Mumbai once for all and then search for a place. In that case you would need temp accommodation. I have posted a message on temp accommodation / serviced apartments a few days ago. May be you can check that out if you wish.

Do yo plan to ship anything from US or just excess baggage which can come along with you on the flight ?

Lots of queries from my side also ? shall write more on seeing your response.

Bye and have a good weekend. Raghu Kumar

piccolina

Palbadri,

Just so you know, Bandra-Khar-Santa Cruz-Vile Parle are all on the Western line whereas the access route to Navi Mumbai is on the Harbour line, which means that it could be rather difficult for your husband to commute given the traffic etc.

Dadar would be a lot easier for both of you to commute - it's fairly central in terms of location and not really too far from any part of the city. A lot will depend though on how you plan to commute - car or public transport.

As for rental costs, they've come down quite a bit, so in the Dadar/Wadala area you should be able to get a 3 bedroom flat for about 50-60k/month (I pay 35k/month for a 2 bed flat but prices have come down since my lease was renewed).

Raghu.Kumar

Hi Palbadri,

Did you check out the options in my previous post ? If you want more options let me know. If you go through agents you would need to give atleast a month's rental, but it is faster to locate the property.

Raghu

palbadri

Thanks everyone - Picolo and raghu for your feedback.

Dadar, matunga seems to be the area where I would like to rent. My budget is actually around 35K max to max.

Radhu you somewhere mentioned that the rent might be as high as 75k???? but i found many people like piccolo mentioning a 2bhk wld be 35-40... i think we will ve to arrive in mumbai and then check it out for real.

Yeah we r thinking of shipping boxes.. not decided how and when.
I am not looking for serviced apt as my husband will be getting some place from work for temp stay. But any feedback on shipping is welcome.

99 acres was ok.- ok not grt coz.brokers dont respond to messages via these sites..but the maps and other info you shared were great.

Also- we have all new furniture here in U.S.. everything is less than 6 months old and I am wondering whether to sell it or ship it? but I suppose shipping wld cost a fortune? Heard anyone shipping their furniture and TV?? Any do's and dont;s on what to get and what not to?
Thanks..

Raghu.Kumar

Hi Palbadri,

What I mentioned as 75 K was a cap on the higher end for Matunga or Dadar, but you were to look at South Bombay its really high. Good that you have choosen to live in either one of the above places as commuation would be easier for both of you. Yes you can get acco for abt 35 K.

regarding shipping, you would need to decide what to bring and what not to bring. there are many Indians who return from the US and have small shipments. what they do is send the goods in a LCL ( less than container load ) and is charged on cubic feet basis. You can drop a mail to saidattani@universalrelocation s.com and request for a free online quote and then you can make your decision. You can also refer my name to them , they might give you a discounted rate as we use their services for our Bank very frequently.

Yes people now ship their televisions also, mostly if it is a LCD or a Plasma as it is cheaper outside India.

Let me see, if I can suggest any other leads to you regarding your housing options if 99acres is not of much use.

Regards, Raghu

piccolina

Palbadri, just a caution on the shipping - there may be issues with customs etc when bringing in stuff into India (you may need to grease a couple of palms at Customs - when my parents moved to India their container took three days to get out of the port) so ensure you use a good movers and packers service who'll take care of that hassle for you, should it arise.

And as for rental costs, in the Dadar/Matunga area you should be able to get a 2 bed apartment in the region of about 35-40k quite easily (depends on how old the building is, facilities provided, etc), but I think you 'll have to wait to get here to make any real progress on househunting.

Raghu.Kumar

Hi Piccolina,

You are right in a way about shipping but the right movers to be used. Thats why I had recomended a vendor empanneled with our Bank. We have around 30 moves across the World per month and no issues with remover as we have been using their services for many years since 2001.

Moreover once you entrust the job to the movers you dont have to visit the customs, except you have to handover the passport for verification and an authorization letter and you would be required to appear in person only under unavoidable circumstances otherwise the movers would take care.

Additional duty is applicable only when you have a replica of the same item say for eg 2 Plasmas or 2 LCDs. If you apprise the movers of the same up front they would manage it somehow.

Raghu

AwayFromHome

I just cleared and received our goods from customs in Delhi 2 days ago.

The movers/shippers were awesome. I had no problems whatsoever. No palms were greased.

Am very, very happy with the shipping firm in the US, and their local affiliate in India. I plan to post a recommendation for the soon. if you need information urgently, just PM me.

FYI.. we shipped a 40 foot container (I know, that's downright decadent) from Texas to Gurgaon and it took approximately 2 months, door-to-door.

palbadri

Hi @ away from Home. How do I PM you? I am new to this whole thing.. quite lost still.. and yeah i want to know how much it costed to ship and if u shipped ur furniture n stuff too. BTW, 2 months sounds long.. A friend of mine had her 45 boxes shipped which took 3 weeks... anyways thanks for this info.. please tell me how to send you a PM>

@ Raghu- Any other suggestions for housing .. 99 acres has been of some help but everyone has been telling me that the best way is to come down and go by word of mouth? confuses me more.. how do i go by word of mouth if we dont know many people in mumbai.
Also, Would Dadar, Matunga, Mahim area have decent places for 35k? I know we already discussed the budget bit.. but I am still wondering.. I dont wanna live in a cramped place.. would ideally like a decent 2BHK with 1000sqft atleast.. and I was surprised to see all the listings on 99 acres and other such sites give somwhere betwen 550 to 800 sq ft for that much money...That is small right? Also I think that as a student I wldnt ve minded that someyears back.. but with family one needs a bigger place..I already know am going to miss my lovely apartment here in NY but well for the love of mumbai.. i can adjust...do give ur feedback on that please. Thanks once again fro all your help.

piccolina

Palbadri, have you tried magicbricks.com? It's similar to 99acres though, so it's quite possible you'll find more or less the same properties listed on both.

You may have to look at flats in slightly older buildings to fit into your budget (the older flats also tend to be a bit more spacious). In case it helps set your mind at ease - I live in a 8 year old building in Matunga East and my apartment area is 962 sq ft. Since my building's a bit old, we don't have a gym/pool/other fancy stuff, but we're ok with that since we wanted a bigger house (plus it's on the 19th floor, so it's really lovely).

Google for a complex called Dosti Acres - see what you think of it - a lot of young couples live there - locationwise it's not too bad, the buildings are new, plus there are facilities like a gym, pool, squash courts etc. A friend of mine rents a 2 bedroom apartment there for 38k/month.

If you want broker contacts, I've got some - the ones who helped me find my place etc. Let me know.