Khammam: Apartment prices increase abnormally

Khammam: The abnormal increase in apartment prices has stunned the people who want to buy a flat in the limits of Khammam Municipal Corporation.

D. Srinivas, an employee working in a cooperative bank, approached a builder six months back to buy an apartment located in Vijaynagar Colony in the town. He was informed that the price would be around Rs 26 lakh for a 960 square feet flat. The same person met the same builder 10 days back and was shocked at the price of the same apartment. He was informed that the flat would cost Rs 30 lakh.

When asked about the steep hike in such a short time, the builder listed the escalation of land, cement, steel, colours, wood, sanitary ware and labour component. The land price of the area was hiked to Rs 22,000 per square yard from Rs 18,000.

Cement prices went up between Rs 330 to Rs 360 per 50 kilo bag from Rs 300. The prices of cement vary from company to company.  The price of sand per tractor was raised from Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000 and iron per tonne was increased from Rs 36,000 to Rs 42,000.

The price of a brick went up from Rs 5 to Rs 7 and about 20,000 bricks are required to construct the walls of an apartment. The wages of a mason was Rs 600 per day five months back and it is Rs 700 per day now. Labour wages have also increased from Rs 350 to Rs Rs 450. The wages of carpenters, painters, sanitation workers and electricians went up from Rs 600 to Rs 700 per day.

Many of the house owners, who took loans from banks for house construction, started approaching banks to increase the loan component by showing that there was an increase in price in different wings in the house’s construction.

N. Sridhar, manager in LIC housing department, said, “The people are asking Rs 5 lakh more as a loan than what they told us earlier. They are saying that cost of the all components has increased.”