The first flats in Kerala
Many would be interested to know the history of apartment buildings in Kerala and how the 'living in flats culture' came about. The first multi-storeyed flat was built in Ernakulam on Chittoor road way back in 1979. This flat known as 'Kadavil Court' was built by Southern Investments or popularly known as SI Homes.
The price at which the flats of approx. 2000 sq. ft. in Kadavil Court was sold in those days was under Rs. 1 lakh. The other early apartment block to catch the attention of the Kerala population was the 'Paul Abrao Apartment complex' in Kacherippady, Ernakulam built in 1991 by RDS (Rameshwar Dayal and Sons) Builders.
These early flats were trend setters and the apartment culture in Kerala caught the imagination of the Keralite NRIs, and after that there was no stopping the boom in apartment buildings in Kerala.
The first apartments in Kerala were in Kochi and then in Trivandrum and Calicut. Now apartment buildings are being built all over Kerala. The rates at which these flats and villas are sold depend mainly on the location and the finishing standards of the building.
The year 1991 saw the first Villa project in Kerala where the idea of community living with all the individual villas surrounded by a common compound wall and a single entry gate with 24x7 security.
First Villa Project in Kerala: Choice Park in Ernakulam built by Choice Group
The first gated community villa project in Kerala is 'Choice Park' built in 1991-1992. Choice Park, the first of gated community villas project in Kerala, is located in Pottakkuzhi, Elamakkara off Kaloor in Ernakulam. This common security gate villa project in Kerala has about 50 independent villas, each with about 4 to 10 cents of land and individual compound walls and with all the villas surrounded by a 8 feet high common compound wall with barbed wire fencing on top. There is only one main entrance to the villa complex which is guarded 24x7.
The salient features of this multiple villa compound are: it has its own Park covered in lush green lawn which extends to an area of about one acre, a big swimming pool, tennis court, club house, wide tarred roads, all electrical and telephone wires through underground ducts with not a single electric post in the compound and so on. These features were first brought to Kerala by Choice Group and now are being copied by all villa compound builders in Kerala. Choice Park was the trend setter in Kerala for community living in secure villa project compound complexes. Even though many villa projects designed as gated community villas in Kerala have been built, Choice Park is still the best gated villa compound community complex in Kerala. In 1992 a villa in Choice Park with 1600 sq. ft. actual carpet area and 6 cents of land was being sold for about 7 lakhs. The value today of the same villa will be at least 1.5 crores.
Ongoing new Building Projects in Kerala
We have separate pages on our site showing the builders and projects in different parts of Kerala. Please click on any of the links from the below list of building projects in various parts of Kerala
