Buying land in Ooty and building a house

Nattusbs

Hi all

I have an opportunity of purchasing a plot about 6 kn from Ooty from a friend who has an ancestral propertiy (NOT agricultural - only residential). Each plot would be about 15 cents (approx 1 cent is 1/100 of an acre)and there would be 4 plots - one is being kept by the owner. He is thinking of about 1.5 Lakhs per cent for the land. What do you guys think? Approximately, each plot would be Rs 22.5 lakhs and has all utility facilites that can be tapped into.

My intent is to build a cottage with rain water harvesting and solar panels, grow our own vegetables and fruit for a retirement life - I am sure Nattu will like the climate there with his thick coat and he will get to run around. I may not use the cottage year-round (since I will be joining as a Professor at IIT) - but, then , maybe set it up as a "bed-and-breakfast" place.

This may be my dream come true.

Cheers

Nattusbs

crvlvr

sounds like a good idea. With the shortage of hotel rooms in India, you might even be able to rent it out as holiday rental to defray the costs. However, is the land priced fairly? And don;t understimate the logistical difficultie and financial risk of construction in India.

Nick-H

I would check out those prices.

It is not as if it is hard to buy property there, or, at least, I've seen places advertised from time to time.

Do be aware of the climate. It is wet and cold for quite a lot of the year. I think there are only a coupe of months when it is what I could call nice. This is the main reason I would absolutely not consider it as a place to live.

Half-way down, on the other hand, would make all the difference. I was surprised at the difference in climate between Ooty and Coonor when I visited last July. I could happily consider living there, or a bit further down. The same beautiful landscapes, gardens, etc, but with better weather. Nattu might like that too!

But, if the idea of cuddling in front of an open fire apeals to you ---- then Ooty will do you very nicely.

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Nattusbs

Thanks for the reply. Nick, I agree with you about Coonoor (I remember seeing Sam maneckshaw's gated estate). I am not sure if the price that my friend is suggesting is all that great, however, having friendly neighbors has its own advantages - all of us will be R2I (Returnees to India!), and we could theoretically hire the same architect (price break for all 4 homes) and contractor to build the homes (also price break). One of the potential buyers is a R2I living in Chennai (Nick I could introduce to him - nice polite chap), is Tamilian, while the seller is a long time Ooty person (his brother still lives there, they are Anglo-Indian of Portugese descent so we can have great Vindaloo!!! as I love cooking).

Cheers

Nattusbs

Nick-H

I'd have thought you might get a nice house for 20 Lakh... even a quaint ex-colonial place? maybe I'm way out of date on that, though!

It isn't so big that you wouldn't be far from friends in the town whatever you do.

But, getting together with friends to build is obviously an attraction in itself...

capt_mahajan

Nick, I think you are probably right.

Of course, within Ooty it will be more expensive, but 7 km away... probably beyond Lovedale, should be cheaper.

But then, all depends.. is it on the main road? Views? etc etc, so cant say for sure.

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dzibead

Nattusbs, try PM'ing member john.sw. He's British but a PIO and has some old family property in Ooty. He spends spends a fair amount of time there and can probably give you some good info.

Goldendeer

IMO, 15 cents is not very large for a cottage, fruit trees and vegetable garden. Atleast half an acre would be ideal. If you can get it cheap even in a place a bit away from the town you can buy a nice vehicle with the money saved.

I had similar plans few years back. I had narrowed my choice to masinagudi since I wanted to be close to the forest. There is a shortcut to Ooty from Masinagudi so I was killing two birds with one stone. Circumstances did not allow me to make my dream come true but I had some fun roaming around in my Gypsy in the mountains and forests. I spent a night in Veerapan territory with tribals celebrating some annual festival. It was a totally thrilling midnight experience, walking on firebed, devotees in a trance carrying life size wooden tigers and very tasty tribal food. Someone told me Veerapan was also present in disguise. LOL

Nick-H

I'm not used to thinking in cents... Chennai properties usually get measured in 'grounds' or in sq. ft.

But I think our place is 12 cents (it is about 3,700sq ft, 1.5 grd; I forget the exact numbers) --- it is room enough for a small house. Ours is just 2-bed, but it is grnd floor only, so obviously one could do a lot better than that with two floors.

The garden is a nice size ...as a garden. Not an orchard, veggie patch, etc etc. We have a couple of mid-size trees.

If I'm right about the cents then, no... 15 is a decent city plot size. Try to get al least twice that!

jyotipg

1.5 lacs/cent looks expensive.

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Nattusbs

No updates to offer on the Ooty house plan. I have been thinking also about Coonoor & Lovedale.

On a somewhat related topic, there was a query about racks (for trains) in another thread. I found this link to be very interesting:

http://members.tripod.com/~railinindia/south.html

Cheers

Nattusbs

ananda2193

I know you have property offered by a friend, but here's a site with lot's of properties in India that might give you some ideas about prices and such.

www.indiaproperties.com

About a year ago I found a small bungalow outside of Ooty here that was about $15,000 U.S if I remember right.