Owning an independent bungalow in the city or in the relatively peaceful evirons of suburbs is a luxury few of us can afford. Though several property developers launched residential apartment projects in suburbs, there was a section of home buyers, who given a chance, would still prefer to have an independent house of their own.

To cater to this segment,

city-based property developer Akshaya launched Metropolis on GST Road, Chennai’s auto hub. Coming up close to Ford’s Maraimalainagar facility as well as Mahindra Global City, Metropolis offers ‘villa apartments’, which are basically residential apartments that offers the privacy of a villa at a much lower cost.

“We were the first one to develop such a concept and do it in Chennai. The idea is to create an apartment, without any common walls,” said T Chitti Babu, managing director of Akshaya, which

is now spreading its wings to other cities like Coimbatore, to FC Estate.

According to him, each apartment will be a separate villa-like independent bungalow, but still be part of a larger residential block. It will also have a servant quarter. “The USP of the project is its spaciousness, besides the luxury of privacy that most people look out for in a villa,” Babu pointed out.

Spread over 10.36 acres, the project will have residential units coming up across 11 blocks, in a 10-storey building with a mix of 2BHKs and 3BHKs, ranging between 1,395 sq ft and 1,420 sq ft in size for 2BHKs and between 1,795 sq ft and 1,955 sq ft for 3BHKs. In all, the project offers 372 3BHKs and 48 2BHKs and a few serviced apartments.

The project boasts of a four-acre central garden, cycling and jogging tracks, children play area, tennis and badminton court, besides a two-tier clubhouse spread over 25,000 sq ft. In addition, it will have indoor recreation facilities, besides a multi-purpose party hall, a mini AV theatre and 100 per cent power back up and water treatment plant. It is scheduled to be completed and handed over for possession by December 2010.

The apartments are priced at Rs 2,950 per sq ft. “We work on a fixed price model and hence have neither increased nor decreased the price based on market conditions,” Babu said.

He further said that Akshaya was the first to discover the potential of Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), Chennai’s IT corridor and has so far launched 11 projects. “We will be handing over the apartments of our 11th project in about two months time. We were also the first to launch a large residential project on GST Road and will be the first to start delivering, as we have already got the shells ready for eight blocks,” he added, stressing on the first-mover advantage on which his projects rode to success on OMR.