Retiring - the mirage..

Another day Another BAILOUT.

The latest is the close to a Trillion Dollar bailout of Greece. When will this madness end and when will this mortgaging of the future of kids end?

Do we as "common people" have a say in the indiscriminate and competitive "bailout" spending being practiced by our governments? In India if it is not some "stimulus package" it is some "subsidy" or some pay commission which leads to inflation.

This only means that the dream of retiring "early" is nothing more than that. All those who have been fiscally responsible in their individual lives, been disciplined in their spending are now left with assets rendered worthless by the ravages of inflation will have to come out of retirement to work again!!

This will lead to a disruption in society leading to a new social order as more people get frustrated with their lot and start blaming the system for the mess their orderly lives have been made into. The next revolution is not far off - its just a question of when and in which country.

The prime candidate for this upheaval will be where the quality of living sees the maximum drop - the irony in all this is - it is this fear which has prompted the BAILOUT in the First place!!

Talk about economic experts and Vested interests!!

Price obfuscation - EMAAR style..

Emaar MGF is the combine which is building the Games village for the Commonwealth Games. And as it turns out these flats are to be sold once the Games are over.

The brochure of Emaar is a minefield and if one is not up to the task of understanding each and every line in that you would end up paying a rate which is scandalous at best!!

Let us take the exact measurements for a 2090 Sft 3 Bedroom apartment or what we call the carpet area from their drawing available online!!

3bhk sq. mtr

store 5.2

wc 2.4

Yard 6.08

kitchen 8.25

bath2 3.8

bed2 8.36

foyer est 4.48

living 20.4

dining 16.4

bath3 4.2

bed3 16.1

bath1 6.25

bed1 15.75

dresser est 5

Total 122.67 OR 1242.65 Sft

So you are being billed for 2090 sft @13250/-sft and getting only 1242.65 sft to live in actually!!

This translates into INR1.65 Cr for the actual area you live in AND

1.13 Cr for the common amenities like swimming pool etc.. (For this price one can build a swimming pool, tennis court, badminton court, table tennis table, etc etc FOR PRIVATE USE)..

Btw the other charges are:

9th floor 900 per sft

temple facing 500 per sft

parking 900000 for two cars

PLC, Regn etc (another 5-7% of TOTAL ABOVE COST)

So taking all of the above into consideration it comes to a princely 24000/- sft plus Regn of 6% so one can say a round sum of 25000/- sft ALL INCLUSIVE - so now would be buying ?

Going by the practices followed by emaar in the gulf – it would not be surprising if you are bound to them for life!! In other words, you cant extend a telephone/ electrical line – because there would be some circuit lock which will disable the system if there is any tampering etc.

A pump would be activated every time you open the tap to give you water “at a steady pace” - increasing both your water consumption and electricity cost!!

All the deceptive marketing tactics are being employed:

1. When this was launched (2-3yrs back) – it was shown as a success – we now find out that practically the entire place is up for grabs!!

2. The rate is specified in per sft basis, whereas the areas marked in the floor plan are in metre sq.

3. There is no clarity on the various “other charges” and the “maintainance charges” going forward.

4. There is no fixed procedure for the creation of a RWA and the conduct of initial elections of the same to hand over the common facility management to the owners from the developer.

If ever there was a crying need for a regulator it is in this space!! Caveat Emptor..

King of elections

There was a story that there was a credit crisis that originated in the Wild Wild West and that it took a lot of innocent bystanders in its wake. One such innocent group to be affected was the "money launders"(ML) for the political class(PC) in India. The result of the PC to not understand the problem's faced by the ML resulted in the Satyam crisis. With looming elections and no funds in sight a desperate PC declared a bounty on government contracts and the winner would be anointed the king.

As the story finally panned out the king(Raja) of the elections was born who made a tidy sum on sale of spectrum. Post the public denouncement across the board by the entire fourth estate the PC is busy undermining the value of the 3G spectrum sale so that the "free" sale by the King can be brought in context with the "price" of the 3G.

How is this to be achieved?

Step 1 - Get somebody to offer 3G at rates lower than 2G (isnt that what BSNL and MTNL - both PC controlled are offering?)

Step 2 - Make the availability of spectrum the lottery here rather than the license !!

You can be rest assured working on the above the auction prices of the 3G would be comparable to the 2G license sale just to fund an election and that would be the faits accomplis that the PC wants and all along we had a King of the elections - just that the poor fellow doesnt know it!!