Artisane Forest Breeze

Artisane Forest Breeze stands on 3rd Main Road in Krishnaraju Layout, Doresanipalya, part of the JP Nagar belt of south Bengaluru, near Dollars Colony and immediately beside Kalyani Tech Park. For anyone working in that park the commute is a walk, which is a rare thing to be able to say. Bannerghatta Road and BTM Layout are reached by road; the developer has not published distances or drive times, so none are quoted here.

JP Nagar is a settled residential area rather than a new corridor, which changes the shape of the day. Schools, hospitals and shopping are already around you, the streets are lined with houses rather than construction sites, and the neighbours have been here for years. Ask the residents, not the seller, where they send their children, shop and see a doctor, and how long the drive to Bannerghatta Road takes at eight in the morning.

An address next to a tech park has a rhythm of its own: busy at the park's start and finish times and quiet at weekends. Stand outside the gate at six in the evening and see how the traffic on 3rd Main Road behaves. Then check the parking: a 4 BHK household with two cars needs to know how many bays the flat carries, and whether visitor parking exists, before anything else.

Artisane Forest Breeze was built in four layouts, all quoted as built-up area. The 3 BHK came in about 2,763 and 2,805 sq ft, the 3.5 BHK in about 3,129 sq ft and the 4 BHK in about 3,925 sq ft. Carpet areas were not published; for a resale, measure the flat or ask for the sanctioned plan, since owners sometimes enclose balconies or merge rooms over the years.

The homes were specified with an RCC frame and solid block walls, marble flooring in the foyer and living areas, and wooden flooring in the master bedroom. The entrance has a teak door frame and the bathrooms branded sanitary fittings. Nine years in, inspect the flooring, plumbing and balcony waterproofing of the actual flat rather than reading the original spec.

Every unit was sold by the developer, so there is no entry price. The last listed rate was about Rs. 8,850 per sq ft. Price is agreed with the seller, and no GST applies because the building holds its occupancy certificate. Stamp duty and registration are charged on the sale deed. Before agreeing a figure, get from the seller:

• The registered value of the seller's own purchase and of recent sales in the building
• The floor, facing and the number of car parking bays that go with the flat
• A no-dues certificate from the owners' association and the current maintenance charge
• Details of any home loan on the flat and the bank's process for releasing it

Artisane Forest Breeze has no RERA registration number published by the developer; the project lists BBMP/BDA approval. A building completed in December 2017 may have been approved before registration was required, so do not treat the absence as a warning on its own. You can still search the Karnataka RERA portal at rera.karnataka.gov.in for the project name and the promoter.

A resale in a completed building is a title exercise more than an approvals exercise. Ask the seller for:

• The occupancy certificate for the block
• The sanctioned building plan, with the flat marked, and any approval for later alterations
• The seller's own sale deed and the full chain of title back to the developer's sale
• An encumbrance certificate covering the years since the seller bought
• The khata in the seller's name and the latest property-tax receipt
• The owners' association's no-objection and no-dues letters
• If a loan is outstanding, the bank's statement and its release letter at registration

A lawyer should read the chain of title before you pay anything beyond a token advance, and that advance should be covered by a written agreement with a date for the sale deed. After registration, transfer the khata into your name, inform the owners' association, and move the electricity and water connections. Keep the occupancy certificate and the sanctioned plan with your deed; the next buyer will ask for them.

Artisane Forest Breeze has three blocks of 14 floors on 1.4 acres, with 75 homes between them, a compact plan with a low count per block. The developer has not published the share of the site kept open, but the project is nine years old, so there is nothing to imagine. Walk the grounds and see how the blocks, the gardens and the courts divide the land. What you see is what you get, and what you see includes how well it has been maintained.

The pool is on the roof, which is the feature that sets this building apart. A morning might start with a swim up there and a session in the gymnasium, then a lap of the jogging track before work. Children have a play area and an activity area of their own, and the outdoor courts once school is done. The landscaped gardens are the evening walk, and retail spaces on the site cover the small errands.

Weekends bring out the clubhouse, the indoor games and games room, the amphitheatre for the society's events and the party area for birthdays. Lifts and security are listed, and in a building of this age the lifts deserve a look. With only 75 homes sharing a rooftop pool and a clubhouse, the maintenance charge per flat will be higher than in a large township. Ask the owners' association for the current figure and the state of the repair fund.