Casagrand Elysium

Casagrand Elysium stands at Gerugambakkam, just next to Manapakkam, on the western side of Chennai. The developer gives only this locality, with no street name, pincode or landmark. It also publishes no distances to offices, schools, hospitals or stations.

That leaves the daily-life picture to you, and it is worth the effort because you will live with the commute for years. Ask the sales team for the exact entrance to the site and use it as the starting point for every trip.

Drive to your office at the hour you would really leave, and time the return in the evening. On a weekend, find the school your children would attend, the nearest hospital with an emergency ward, and a grocery store you would use each week. With construction under way, the site today will look like a work zone, so judge the approach road and the neighbourhood rather than the gate. Ask locally about planned road or drainage works nearby; a year of digging can add real minutes to every trip.

Casagrand Elysium has three layouts on offer, all quoted as built-up area. Two-bedroom buyers can pick a plan of roughly 1,269 sq ft, opening at Rs. 80 Lakhs, or a bigger one of roughly 1,469 sq ft, opening at Rs. 91 Lakhs. The three-bedroom plan measures roughly 1,800 sq ft and opens at Rs. 1.14 Crore.

Those prices work out to about Rs. 6,300, Rs. 6,200 and Rs. 6,300 per sq ft. The extra 200 sq ft in the larger two-bedroom plan costs about Rs. 11 Lakhs more, so compare the room sizes before you pay for it. Carpet areas have not been published; ask for them, as the RERA agreement must state them.

The project is under construction, so GST applies, and stamp duty and registration are payable on top. Payments will follow construction stages. Ask for a cost sheet that shows:

• Base price for your exact block, floor and facing
• Car park charges
• Clubhouse membership, corpus fund and maintenance deposit
• GST, stamp duty and registration listed separately
• The stage-linked payment schedule and handover date

Casagrand Elysium is registered with Tamil Nadu RERA as TN/29/Building/00173/2023. Look it up on TNRERA (rera.tn.gov.in) before you pay a booking amount. Check the promoter's name, the number of homes, the declared completion date and whether the registration covers the block you are buying in.

Since the homes are still being built, there is no completion certificate yet. At this stage, ask for:

• The RERA registration certificate
• The approved building plan showing your unit
• Title documents and an encumbrance certificate for the 14.9 acres
• A draft agreement for sale with the carpet area, handover date and payment schedule
• The list of banks that have approved the project for home loans

Read the clause on delay compensation before you sign. At handover, ask for the completion certificate for your block and register the sale deed in your name. Then transfer the property tax assessment, the electricity connection and the association membership to yourself, and keep a copy of the approved plan.

Casagrand Elysium has six low blocks, each with a basement and five storeys above ground, spread over 14.9 acres and holding 1,094 homes. The developer has not published the share of land kept open. Ask for the approved site plan to see where your block lies relative to the clubhouse and courts. Everything you see in images today is as planned by the developer.

Sport is at the centre of the plan. A weekday could start on the yoga deck or in the gym, and evenings can be spent on the tennis, futsal and basketball courts. The developer also describes a skating arena, a bowling lane and a pool with separate lap and children's sections, inside a clubhouse of about 31,000 sq ft.

For quieter hours there is a spa, a mini-theatre and an indoor games room. Children have a play area and the landscaped gardens. If you work from home, the co-working space gives you a desk away from the flat. Ask whether clubhouse membership is part of the price and how the maintenance charge will be set for a campus this size.