Checklist of Right Amenities required for your Home

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."- Benjamin Franklin.

Amenities play an important role of everyone’s house. Without the basic and necessary amenities your home is incomplete. Type of amenities depends upon the target audience and also the builder. Some will prefer having a swimming pool in their apartment, while others won’t. At the end of the day it all depends on how you are going to benefit from the amenities being offered by the builder.

Amenities can be classified into 4 types

S.no

Basic Amenities

Quintessential Amenities

Location centric Amenities

Luxury Amenities

1.

Elevator

Emergency / workers elevator

ATM facility

Swimmingpool, tenniscourt,basketball court.

2.

24/7 Security

Children’s play area

Hospital

Landscape garden, party area and Pet park

3.

Power backup

Park for Elderly people.

Market place

Amphitheatre & WIFI access

4.

Water treatment plant

Intercom & Fire alarms.

In house laundry

Automated Home system

5.

Solar Heaters

Gym

On-site management

Beauty parlor & Spa

Basic Amenities - These are the most necessary amenities which everybody requires. One of the best methods to find out whether the builder is a quality builder is to find out if the builder provides basic amenities. Some of the basic amenities are mentioned in the table above. Elevator facility is absolutely necessary for every apartment which has more than 4 floors, it also depends on the number of units in every floor. Elevator necessity is based on the usability. I have observed some apartments having two elevators which have only three floors. The expenses and the maintenance charges far outweigh the benefits. A minimum of two elevators is the norm for every apartment. During the peak hours such as morning and evening both the elevators will be operating, but during the odd hours they make one elevator non functional. Due to the increase in crime rates every apartment provides 24/7 security. Vehicle entry and personnel entry into the apartments will be regularly monitored. Power back up is generally provided in all apartments, these are mostly effective for only the common areas of the apartment such as lifts, lane lights etc. Water treatment plants and solar water heaters are a common sight in most of the apartments. Today water used in apartment complexes and gated communities is obtained partly from bore wells or from tanker water suppliers. Invariably, the water has a total mineral content higher than the "desirable" value specified in BIS-10500 which is the official Indian standard for water used for human consumption. A high mineral content means that the total hardness of the water will also be high and cause problems like scaling of hot water geysers, choking of pipes, poor quality of washing in machines etc. Today property buyers and owners of apartment buildings are interested in new ways to lessen their water and electricity expenditures solar water heater is mandatory for new buildings and apartments in cities and some states of India A trend of "Eco Friendly Homes" or "green homes" is seen among builders and property buyers. The benefits of green homes are many. They help save energy, conserve water and recycle waste. Solar water heater is one such home appliance that runs on solar energy and saves you more than 50 per cent on your energy bills.

• Quintessential amenities - These are amenities which normally people prefer to have in their residential complexes and has somewhat become a market trend. Some apartments will have an extra Elevator normally referred to as emergency backup elevator which is functional only when there is an emergency such as power blackout, elevator maintenance or in case of fire. Children’s play and parks once again are a common sight in every residential layout/apartment. Intercom facilities are on the rise in apartments nowadays. It helps in the security process, unlike traditional security using register books to note down the number of visitors entering the house; security personnel can now inform the residents through intercom about visitors. Fire alarm is a mandatory for most of the high rise buildings; apart from that each floor must have fire extinguishers. Most of the builders install smoke detectors in almost all the floors. Most of the apartments/residential complexes install in house gyms for the residents to use. Residents usually pay monthly fee to avail the gym services. Again it entirely depends on the residents if they are willing to pay for it. Gym is good addition to your residential complex but once again if you are not using it regularly there is no point in spending extra for the gym.

• Location Centric Amenities - Certain Amenities are extremely necessary, in terms of location. New residential layouts and apartments are mostly located on the outskirts of the City. most of these residents won’t have instant access to these amenities. If you consider Bangalore and chennai, people are interested to buy a property in Bangalore and also to buy a property in chennai, but if you want affordable property then you have to search properties located on the outskirts. These layouts need to have in-house amenities to carter to its residents. Some of the most essential are ATM machines, hospitals/medical stores, mini market place, in house laundry and on-site maintenance. These amenities are essential to keep the residents comfortable and content. These layouts need to have in-house amenities to carter to its residents. Some of the most essential are ATM machines, hospitals/medical stores, mini market place, in house laundry and on-site maintenance. These amenities are essential to keep the residents comfortable and content.

• Luxury Amenities - Amenities which cost a lot of maintenance charges are classified under the Luxury apartments. Swimming pool, Basketball court, tennis court, pet parks, landscape garden, amphitheatre etc are some of the above mentioned Luxury amenities. These amenities are required based on their usability. Like some amenities mentioned above such as pet parks are of use to the buyer only if he/she owns a dog, otherwise it’s completely not worth it. A new trend emerging in most of the apartments is a club house. Again being a member of the club comes with a price, Initial registration charges, plus monthly maintenance charges. Most of the above mentioned amenities will come under the clubhouse (Swimming, gym, basketball court, tennis court etc).

Choose Your Amenities carefully.

Every amenity provided by the builder incurs cost, which will be included in the overall cost of the apartment; some amenities mentioned above in the table will incur extra costs such as the swimming pool, tennis court.

Not everybody can estimate the exact cost of a swimming pool, since there are frequently so many changes in the plan depending on the upcoming technologies that always seem to be more improved by the day. However, a basic idea of the components always gives a range as to how much you need to arrange for before taking the plunge.

• The first expense that would come your way would be obviously the construction cost. There are many criterions for judging regarding how much this head would cost. Some contractors would base their estimate on how many square feet of area has to be dug, while others would go for the number of men required for the work and the days spent, and so on.

• The second factor is the type of water purification system you want to install. There is also a separate motor if you want, for this process to function even better. The estimate for this is based entirely on the kind of equipment you want. A general estimate is that the bigger the area of the pool, the more you need to spend on the pool.

• The third factor is the monthly maintenance charges for the swimming pool. Members will have to pay a fee ranging from Rs. 500 to 1500 per month. This will be including the repair charges, in case if the motor or the filtration system is not working.

• At the end of the day if you are not an avid fan of swimming, then there is no reason to go for that amenity. The cost of the swimming pool will be included in the building costs and you will end up spending more for no purpose.

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