What Makes Kothrud The Realty Hotspot In Pune

Kothrud is a story of how a Pune suburb, with an excellent infrastructure, development and trade, became a real estate hotspot. The suburb's rapid growth has placed it among the fastest-growing Asian cities. Located in Pune's south-west, the area was once home to middle-class Maharashtrians with old constructions. Once a Peshwa centre and called Kothrud Baag back then, the suburb is quickly transforming into a high-rise locality, home to employees of this industrial district. A look at what makes Kothrud a new residential and commercial hub.

Strategic location

A good connectivity has helped the area to a prime residential hub. Kothrud is located between Pune's two biggest roads, Paud Road and Karve Road. Around 12 kms from the Mumbai-Pune expressway, a number of buses connecting Kothrud to other areas. It is also close enough to Wakad, an IT (information technology) hub.

Growing services

The IT sector is one of the biggest contributors of growth in the area and has more than eight office campuses of companies such as Cognizant, Tech Mahindra, Harbinger Software Group and Matrix Technologies. However, unlike many new realty hubs, Kothrud does not bank its growth exclusively on the IT sector. It also has a manufacturing setup of Cummins India as well other automotive part manufacturing companies. This brings to the area more and more people, employed across sectors. Most of the demand for homes comes from IT professionals and NRIs (Non-Resident Indians).

Educational hub

Kothrud is home to many engineering and management schools as well as science and commerce institutes. Bhartiya Vidyapeeth and Garware College are among the many famous colleges in this area. This brings students from across the country to rent and stay for a few years, making it a hub for rental homes.

Property prices

The area has already become an upmarket area with properties rates starting at Rs 8,000 per sq ft. A 2BHK aparment in Kothrud costs anywhere between Rs 60-80 lakh. A few row homes, too, are built in this area costing Rs 1-1.2 crore. Developers such as Developers, Petkar Projects, Bhujbal Township have projects in Kothrud. According to PropTiger Data Labs, from Rs 4,415 per sq ft in 2010, property prices have appreciated to Rs 9,155 per sq ft this year.

(Katya Naidu has been working as a business journalist for the last nine years, and has covered beats across banking, pharma, healthcare, telecom, technology, power, infrastructure, shipping and commodities.)