Skyscrapers changing Chennai skyline
Unlike other metros pan-India, Chennai for a long period of time had been experiencing horizontal residential growth. But since the past 4-5 years, the city has been witnessing an upsurge in demand for skyscrapers. This rise was the aftermath of the 2nd Master Plan of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority rolled out in 2008. Until this time, 60 metres was the maximum height permitted in the city by the authorities. But the master plan in 2008 lifted height restrictions due to which many high-rise buildings started sprawling up, especially in the southern outlying areas of the city. As per Chennai market, any building having 10 or above floors is considered a skyscraper.
In Fig 1, we can see an interesting upsurge in high rise projects particularly since 2009.
Fig 1: High rise projects launched since 2008
[Source: Real Insights @ CommonFloor.com]
The graph clearly indicates that there is an increase in the supply of high-rise buildings over the last few years. For 2014, data has been considered only till September and due to the general elections in May, developers didn’t launch many projects.
As per data by CommonFloor, there are about 244 residential Skyscraper projects in Chennai out of which 96 are completed (as on October 2014) and 148 ongoing developments.
Fig 2: Graph showing the year wise completion of high rise projects in Chennai
[Source: Real Insights @ CommonFloor.com]
Fig. 2, further indicates that out of the total 148 upcoming skyscraper projects, about 40 per cent are expected to be completed by 2015, pumping the highest supply of high rise projects in Chennai’s history.
Fig 3: Top 5 localities with highest no.of Skyscrapers in Chennai
[Source: Real insights @ CommonFloor.com]
As seen in Fig 3, the leading centres of Skyscrapers are located towards the southern part of the city. Most of these skyscrapers boast of offering a good sea-view. Correlating this data with the price segmentation of these projects, we find that most of these projects belong to high-end segment. This infers the gradual shift in buyer preferences towards high-end apartments rather than swanky bungalows or villas.
