Bathroom Makeovers in India

When it comes to bathroom makeover most of the people see it as an expense rather than an investment. Indeed true that the business in bathroom is plain necessity, it brings in great joy to indulge in a hot tub bath for hours if the atmosphere is right. But making over a bathroom can do much more than that. After all who would like the ugly sight of dampened walls lashed with broken tiles or leaky taps that steals the unwanted attention.

Benefits of bathroom remodeling- 

Bathroom renovations bring in tremendous benefits when done with care and planning. Here are few benefits of bathroom remodeling which brings in both form and functionality-

1. Bathroom renovation brings in the jest of luxury.
2. It creates right ambience giving you the joy of indulgence.
3. It shows off your taste for design and brings in personal touch.
4. Renovation can also mean more comfort and functionality, which lacked earlier.
5. When somebody enters the bathroom it gives the same feeling and equal pleasure as the rest of your home.
6. It can bring in a lot more space with the help of either virtual arrangements or physical constructions.
7. It can also make you more space for additional storage required for bathroom linen and towels hence decluttering other part of your house.
8. It improves the cleanliness of the bathroom by getting rid of old rusty pipes or hardware that is lashed withbuildup, which is beyond the reach of acids or other cleaning agents.
9. It also makes your bathroom green if you can opt for energy efficient bulbs and eco-friendly materials. This’ll save you on utility bills and also create healthy environment. 
10. Gets rid of mildew or mold accumulated over years, which otherwise could lead you to sickness. This helps to improve your overall health, psychologically as well as physically. It brings in feel good factor and lifts your spirits. 
11. Bathroom remodeling can increase the value of your property since the potential buyers look out for beautiful and functional bathroom while buying a house.  This gives your home immense boost adding to capital gain.

4 Handy tips to uplift your bathroom interiors by giving it a makeover under budget- 

1. Move it and get some floor space-

Huge vanity in bathroom looks stunning but can consume a lot of space. Vanities are a good option for big bathrooms with enough space for mobility.  However, the same good-looking vanity can become cumbersome in small bathrooms occupying most of the space. 

You can optimize floor space in small bathrooms by replacing vanity with modern sleek pedestal sink. This helps you save huge on your budget as well. Or the other way is to have floating vanity that still keeps the floor clear while retaining the look of sophistication. 

Petite wall mounted toilet is another way to add more room in your bathroom. Further if you want wet and dry area to be separate then a shower curtain should suffice. This not only makes it easy to keep it open when not in use but also fits in budget. Having a closed shower room can make your small bathroom too congested. 

2. Create storage space tactfully-

Storage in bathroom is so much more important than just having it done beautifully. You might not have all the space in the world to consider a closet inside the bathroom but having a few selves shouldn’t be so difficult. Sometimes it seems like it’s just not going to work and adding shelves would steal the look. However, with little planning and smart execution you solve the problem just-like-that.

Have a small mirror above the sink and install a shelf below it so that you can accommodate all your daily essentials. The space above your toilet is the most neglected area, utilize it and use it for storage with a chick cabinet or a couple of shelves. You can also squeeze in more storage space by mounting a shelf above the door or double the mirror so that you can hide away stuff behind it with a recessed cabinet or you could even have a full-length mirror that blends in with the style of your bathroom. 

3. Make it feel roomy –

Is your bath smaller and look like a cluttered cage? Here are few things you can do to make it feel bigger and better.

Go for a single tone when it comes to colour. The theory being that lighter is better, uniform color from ceiling to wall to floor makes it feel bigger. Contrast in color can chop off the space making it visually look smaller. Choose uniform colour for flooring, tiles on the wall, sink, bathtub, etc. But you can still play with colours by highlighting the hues of shelves or accessories. 

Make use of larger tiles on the floor as well as on the wall. The smaller the tiles the more the grout lines which tend to break the space and add bulkiness.  Get in some movement with pattern tiles on the floor such as herringbone pattern, which attracts the beholder to the width making it feel wider.

Bigger mirrors give it a more roomy feeling and also make your bathroom grander. You could also use mirrors or glass on top of wall cabinet to give it an illusion of depth rather than bringing it on the face with woody opaque cabinet doors.  Use clear shower curtains or clear glass to separate wet and dry area so that they don’t cut the space visually. 

4. The art and science of lighting your bathroom interiors-

Yes privacy is key in bathroom but don’t let your fear (of being seen in the state) creep in so much that you end up covering your window with dark or shady blinds. Let the light in by covering it with sheer curtains or frosted window glasses. Make use of mirrors to reflect the lights so that your bathroom makes the most from natural sunlight during the day.

When it comes to lighting your bathroom, you might want to use at least 2 types of lights- task lightand ambient light. Task lighting, like the one beside the vanity mirror or top of it helps to see yourself better. When you use the mirror to shave or for other purposes it gives a clearer reflection.You can add ambient light in the center of the bathroom required to illuminate the entire area.  Accent light and decorative light areluxurious options depending on the size of the bathroom, your bathroom décor as well as your budget. 

Conclusion-

Smart design and styling can rock even the smallest of bathrooms all under budget. You can transform your bathroom into a space that grows visually and adhere to functionality with few tricks like the ones mentioned above. A newly done bathroom is just so much more than increasing resale value. It’s a place you want to be in, relax and bath in sophisticationwithout making you claustrophobic.

This is a guest post Contributed by Wienerberger India

Professional Real Estate Consultants (PREC) Vs Agents

Professional Real Estate Consultants (PREC) and agents play very different roles in the real estate market, even though their roles and responsibilities are similar to each other and overlaps at times. A professional real estate consultant usually handles the clients with utmost care and advises the client’s requirements on their investment activities, educate them and help them to grow their money by connecting them to the right people by advising financials, abiding government procedures and the real estate laws. Whereas the normal agent also plays a role on suggesting the properties, showing them different options and helping them throughout the property transactions.

The major difference you could find between PREC and Agent is that, PREC is a well-educated, self-mannered and more disciplined in his approach and about the market; also handles the queries and advises in a professional way and resolves all the queries effectively, whereas you cannot find these kind of qualities in normal agent or realtor and there are very few people in whom you could find professional characteristics.

The agents moves forward along with the market, whereas the PREC takes his time, verifies, understands and have all the records with him before approaching the market. Once he catches the pace of market, he will lead the market on his own proven disciplines and principles, so this makes most of the builders, investors to get accredited by them and get their services. PREC will be studying and catching the pulse of the market much better than the realtors.

Consultancy Fees

Yet again the standard market fees for an agent or PREC are set as standard of 2% on the sale value. But PREC do charge more than 2% on fewer transactions that is because of their dedicated team; such as research, marketing and sales, who has expertise in their own streams, with their own code of conduct, disciplines. Real time consultancy companies like JLL, Knight Frank, Colliers, Cushman Wakefield, Square Yards, India Homes, Prop Tiger, and Property Connect, etc are few names which we can hear in the consulting industry as they have proven their PQRSTs services to the market and that is why they are way more different from any other agents and their charges would be a little higher compared to others.

This is a guest post by Property Connect

India goes mobile for property search

Press Release:

The Indian consumer has moved beyond ‘on-the-go’ shopping of basic necessities such as grocery, fashion or electronic products. The consumer today has extended his purchases on mobile from ‘Roti’, ‘Kapda’ to now ‘Makaan’.

Penetration of mobile and internet connections have aided consumer convenience. Digital revolution and technological advancement has played an important role to accelerate the shift of property search from desktop to mobile. Most people use their mobile device to explore at least one of the following: search for listings, find directions to a house, look for more information, call or e-mail an agent directly, or watch a video while out looking for a home.

Attached are findings from the study conducted by IndiaProperty.com that clearly indicates the growth in use of Mobile for property search.

Real Estate Growth in North Bangalore

Bangalore which is known as Silicon Valley of India continues to attract techies, NRIs and other skilled professionals from all over the globe. According to recent reports, there has been an increase in number of Indians returning back from abroad to the city. Bangalore is also attracting expats from other countries; these facts have become important for making Bangalore (which is an IT Hub) a preferred real estate heaven across the country. Bangalore hot areas like Jayanagar, Malleshwaram, and Koramangala, Indiranagar or Basavanagudi and other famous locations were the only choice of realty investors a decade ago. However, change of real estate trends and continuous expansion of the city has attracted buyers because of competitive price points and the growing infrastructure and the cosmopolitan culture which is spreading across the outskirts of Bangalore. All these changes have made the investment safe and guaranteed in Bangalore. In midst of all Bangalore locations, North Bangalore has shown tremendous growth in real estate and has become one of the greatest developing areas as compared to other locations.

We explain below the ‘key factors’ for potentiality of North Bangalore

• Location: 

Inauguration of Kempegowda International Airport has made North Bangalore as a hot spot of IT city. Major infrastructure developments like flyovers and road widening, malls, and major IT hubs like Manyata Tech Park and proposed SEZ parks in Devenahalli are the major key factors for the growth of North Bangalore.

Importance of north Bangalore will definitely increase as the present projects and new launches are comparatively more and the supply of more residential apartments which is going to be delivered in the next 2 years will see a major infrastructure development.

The projects after hebbal to devenahalli covering doddaballapur, hennur and outer ring road and you can find all the big players in these roads with their unique conceptual lifestyle designing projects. And the prices are starting from 70 lakhs to 7 crores, where you can find majority of millionaires and all the top management bureaucrats residing in these areas.

• Available land bank: 

North Bangalore offers huge land banks due to the major developments and future developments in these areas compared to any other locations, all these factors are attracting many realty players to come up with large residential projects and commercial complexes, which can go well with the needs of investors from various categories. According to the latest research from various sources, North Bangalore market is going to turn into ‘Greater Bangalore’ when compared to the other locations of Bangalore.

• Connectivity: 

North Bangalore has a great connectivity. Entire north Bangalore is well connected with larger part of the city through rail and road. Moreover, expressway joining Hebbal and Yelahanka has decreased the travel time to airport. Upcoming projects in north Bangalore will even make its connectivity better; some of them are High Speed Rail Link, which will connect city center and the international Airport; Monorail project connecting Hebbal, JP Nagar, and Peripheral ring road that will link Tumkur Road, Old Madras Road, Sarjapur Raod and Hosur Road. Good connectivity is required in making smart investment decision, since it provides great prospect, high income, and capital gains for investors in long term.

• Infrastructure: 

Infrastructure growth in north Bangalore has gained breathtaking drive due to Kempegowda International Airport, which became South India’s busiest airport and Manyata Embassy Business Park in Hebbal has biggest MNCs like IBM, Cognizant, Target, etc; larsen & Turbo, GKVK, Jakkur flying club. This part of Bangalore has seen numerous hospitals, educational institutes, and shopping malls in recent years. After analyzing the growth of North Bangalore in all sectors, the State Government has made a decision to increase a number of projects, which includes planned aerospace SEZ, Rs 1,000-crore financial city and the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR).

• Overview:

As per analysts, it is evident that North Bangalore’s real estate growth is basically driven by new infrastructure developments, land availability, greater connectivity, IT parks, and airport. Real estate market in North Bangalore’s offers diverse products for all types of requirements. Both premium and affordable villas along with apartments, row or town houses, villas, and presidential villas are available at all prices suiting to everyone’s budget. Also Karnataka government has promised to take care of basic infrastructure in north Bangalore, it is certain that investment in real estate will surely show potential return in long term. All these aspects will force real estate growth in North Bangalore region and will bring profits for anyone looking at real estate investment.


This is a guest post by Asharani C

The answer to leading a Luxurious Life - Villa

Living in a spacious setting, with large garden, a huge parking space, stairs coming out from the mid of living room and reaching spacious room set on the upper floor. With a big terrace and a few extra spaces here and there will make everybody’s dream of living in heaven on earth a reality. This is how a luxury apartment aka villa feels like. If you want to know what it is all about, keep reading.
                         
Irrespective of the 16% buyers looking for builder floors in the emerging IT hub of India, the demand for villas continues to grow among the buyers and maintain the niche position. The reason for this demand varies from large space, decoration opportunity to a huge play and parking area.

Irrespective of whatever the reasons typical villa buyers may have, they witness the comfort and superiority they get after investing in a villa.

Reasons for this increase in demand

The factors that have seemingly led the world to demand villas are:

1. They want to stay away from the hustle of the cities
2. The area they will be getting is huge
3. There is a lot of space for innovation or second income
4. Less or no parking/ waste nuisances
5. Rise in income

Along with the above mentioned factors, things like the excitement of living in an independent house with zero interference is what drive property seekers to Bangalore. Another important benefit of investing in villas in Bangalore can be that time of construction is faster and therefore the time of possession.

Reasons why Bangalorites are opting for luxury living provided by villas

When it comes to following your dream of living a spacious and luxurious life, things like the price, income level and taxes etc. does not stop you. In case of Bangalorites, the factors for this choice can be:

• High level of Income

People who live and work in Bangalore are paid more than their other metro counterparts, mostly because of the high cost of living.

• Need of Personal space

Like every other metro people, they too crave for the feeling of being secluded with no interference, where they can relax after a hard days at work.

• Connectivity

The area where villa system is most prevalent is the Sarjapur locality. The area is easily connected to rest of the city through multiple modes of networks.

• Land price

The price of villas here is much lower than what they will get in other metros or similar areas.

• Amenities

The builders who houses in the Sarjapur area provide all the basic amenities that an investor can expect from living in an apartment.


Living in a villa has its own perks but some things should be given huge consideration too, like the age and condition of the property, the reliability of developers, and their past work etc. Other things you should note before making a huge investment is the locality, how is the commutation from this locality, the people who are going to be your future neighbors. Also note the resale value of your property in case you decide to sell it in future.

Villas have proved to provide a luxurious living statement along with comfort and a chance to have a second earning. Investing in one is a sweet deal, but like any other investment make sure you gather full information about the builder group.

This is a guest post by Tripti. Her articles talk about the real estate industry. She is an avid reader and a keen observer.