 "Why invest over Rs 3 crore in DLF 5 when you can avail benefits in only Rs 100/ day?")
Recently the MD & CEO of a Rs 2,000 crore company decided to move out of his own house at Unitech villas to stay at DLF’s Magnolias where the monthly rent is a whopping Rs 2 lakh. The reason? He wanted to be part of a community. Had heknown that he could have availed all the facilities of DLF 5 by simply becoming a guest member of any person residing there, he could have saved a lot in rent and brokerage.
To avail the facilities of the Park Place Club (called Clubvita in Parkplace), it is not essential for a person to be the owner of a house inDLF5, a gated community of sorts which includecondominium communities such as Aralias, The Magnolias, The Belaire and DLF Park Place amongst others.One could use the facilities by being a tenant too.
The DLF 5 members need to pay Rs 5,000 per quarter irrespective of how much or how little they use the facilities. Whereas the guest, just has to pay Rs 100 per hour (This restriction given that the authorities keep a strict watch which is hardly the case).
The guest can play tennis, swim, use the gym, etc provided themember from the society in Park Place accompanies you.If you are sitting by the pool side, you don’t even have to spend any money, just ensure you have one good friend who needs you as much as you need him or you have a set of friends whom you can use intelligently.
A guest can come every day as well, so why invest crores (the going rate should be anything upwards of Rs3 crore at rate of Rs. 15,500 per sq. m.) in buying a house here. You never know, this could become a paid model in future. In the upcoming Crest, the cost of a house is anywhere upwards of Rs 5 crore and in other DLF project called the Camelias, it goes upwards of Rs 20 crore but the rules of the club would remain the same where a guest can pay Rs 100 for 1 hour to use any facility.
When a property is promoted by a developer like DLF, all the facilities are shown in the brochure as selling points - tennis, park, basket-ball, gym, skating court, etc. Nowhere is it mentioned that you can still use these facilities even if you don’t buy or rent these houses. The same practice is being followed in upcoming projects like DLF’s Camelias & Crest and is already going on in DLF’s Club of Park Place.
So in essence the owner pays EMIs to stay in DLF5, a tenant pays rent, while a guest shells out nothing. He just needs a friend or a relative residing in the community to gain access to the facilities.
The bottom line is this: A guest can forge a membership card and still not be banned from the club!
And wheredoes the come from for maintaining thepark and the club?
The residents of course! So, a resident buys/rents house, pays maintenance while the guest has a good time.
In my opinion one should justpick up a house or better still rent a house anywhere in Gurgaon for Rs 10,000 to 20,000 a month but more importantly get an entry into Park Place through their acquaintance/friend and enjoy all the facilities at DLF 5 by hardly paying anything, maybe just Rs 1000 per month!