Bengaluru: What the Kengeri-Whitefield Metro linkage means for real estate along the Purple line

The long-awaited metro corridor between Kengeri in West Bengaluru and Whitefield in the eastern IT corridor, covering a distance of 40 kilometres, became fully operational on October 9.

Ravi Gowda, a techie, has been looking to buy an apartment close to the Indiranagar metro station in Bengaluru. “The completed purple metro line would allow me to travel seamlessly to my office in Whitefield. However, my budget is Rs 4 crore, while none of the apartments are available under Rs 7 crore,” said Gowda.

The long-awaited metro corridor between Kengeri in West Bengaluru and Whitefield in the eastern IT corridor, covering a distance of 40 kilometres, became fully operational on October 9.

The completed metro line connects the western parts of Kengeri township and the eastern IT corridor to the central business district of MG Road.
With the completion of the missing Baiyappanahalli-KR Pura link, places such as Kengeri in the western corridor and RR Nagar in the middle have also come under the radar for real estate investments.

Capital investments along the metro line

Like Gowda, several homebuyers have started enquiring about properties close to the purple line due to ease of conveyance, especially amid the notorious Bengaluru traffic.

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However, unlike real estate appreciation in areas close to the metro line, local brokers say that capital appreciation will be slow in the coming years.

“The prime areas along the purple metro line like Indiranagar, Koramangala, Whitefield, and MG Road have already seen a 20-30 percent jump in capital prices in the past year. For example, the current apartment rate in Indiranagar is Rs 25,000 per sq ft and that jumped from Rs 18,000 per sq ft when the metro was announced,” said Kiran Kumar, Vice President of Hanu Reddy Realty.

Thus, Kumar added, over the next 3-5 years, such places will only see a 5-10 percent appreciation in capital investments. “But such investments are good options for end-users as they will be able to avoid the major traffic snarls in the eastern corridor and central Bengaluru,” he said.

Considerable rental appreciation

However, brokers say that the rental appreciation will be at least 20-30 percent within two years for the same properties in prime areas along the metro line.

“After the completion of the metro line, the demand for rental properties close to the purple line has quadrupled, although no properties are available. It is a perfect window to invest in the metro corridor for good rental returns,” said Sunil Singh, Director of Realty Corps.

For example, a 1 BHK property (with no car park) that was priced at Rs 10,000 per month is now being rented at Rs 22,000 per month—since it was in the vicinity of the Indiranagar metro station on the purple line.

“However, this only applies to properties within 1-2 km from the stations. Beyond that the rental drops drastically by 10-20 percent due to congestion and traffic snarls,” Singh added.

Suburbs to see demand
The metro connectivity will have effects beyond the line’s immediate catchment area. Kumar believes the outskirts of KR Pura and Whitefield will start seeing more demand. Prices of real estate in areas such as Hoskote (10 km from KR Pura) and Budigere Cross (8 km) are expected to jump in the next few quarters.

Other micro areas like Hoodi, Nallurahalli and Hope Farm, close to the metro line, have become growing real estate pockets in the eastern suburbs. The micro-market offers relocation and expansion opportunities as the rents here are about 30 percent lower than the Bengaluru average, experts say.

Beware of the traffic, last-mile connectivity

Though the metro manages to connect the western parts of the city and the central business district to the eastern IT corridor, the last-mile connectivityr in parts of Whitefield is poor.

Abhishek Anand, who is happy about the metro connecting to Kadugodi (towards Whitefield), says the poor last-mile feeder connectivity from stations to residential areas is a big downside.

Unless the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation runs feeder buses connecting the metro stations, the number of private vehicles, and consequent congestion, will not come down, experts say.

Sandeep Anirudhan, convenor of the Citizens’ Agenda for Bengaluru, pointed out that Chennai has electric nano buses as an excellent solution to provide last-mile connectivity from metro stations, bus stops and railway stations to internal roads.

“The metro decongests a major bottleneck between KR Pura and Mahadevpura metro stations. However, we will not see the complete realisation of ridership until the last mile is connected,” a transport expert with the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), added. “Most feeder services are not commercially attractive and thus will see longer delays before they are actually implemented. Government incentives such as subsidies for such private transport services could have helped.”