Moving to Coimbatore?

Why is Coimbatore emerging as the latest hub in southern India?

Coimbatore is an upcoming city in southern India, in the state of Tamil Nadu. Owing to its clean and peaceful environment with modern standards of living, many people, old and young alike have preferred to move to Coimbatore. Coimbatore offers all the amenities and lifestyle of a metro city but without its hustle and bustle.

Geographically it is smaller in comparison to Bengaluru or Chennai, but it offers a better quality of living. In recent years, many people have shifted their homes to Coimbatore from metro cities like Bangalore and Chennai. The city blends modernization with tradition and culture. The weather in Coimbatore is beautiful and very pleasant. Coimbatore also houses some of the finest educational institutions. It also has a number of good hospitals that are well known all over the country. Healthcare is pretty good and as result, a lot of retired people find in convenient to shift to Coimbatore

The booming city has the pre-requisites of a lifestyle city that is high on the wish list of the corporate sector and the young professionals. As a result, a large number of the IT population are shifting homes from Bangalore to Coimbatore. When most of the corporates have been reeling due to the effects of the pandemic, Coimbatore has emerged as a booming hot spot in southern India

Coimbatore is no longer a city that can easily be defined by the given parameters of a tier II city. It is rather a hip and happening city where the multiple demand drivers are working in tandem to make sure it gives a tough competition to other metro cities of the country, most notably Bangalore and Hyderabad in the southern part of the country.

Most property developers in Coimbatore are confident of its growth, and they even suggest that Coimbatore has the potential to emerge as the best South Indian city. With a good number of people relocating to Coimbatore, most realtors feel that it is one of the best property markets across the country. An outside view may suggest otherwise, as the city still is an end-user driven market and the demand drivers are need-based and not speculative elements or investor groups.

However, a closer look at the upcoming projects across the major micro-markets of the city suggests that the developers have already realised the change of mindset of the new-age buyers. It is reflective in terms of the offerings also an affordable luxury as a concept that is a misnomer in other parts of the country is increasingly gaining ground in the city.

Coimbatore has been one property market which has been least affected by the overall economic slowdown. It has rather accelerated the pace of developments and the city clearly shows a tectonic shift in the market and reflects the buyers’ preferences for lifestyle-driven apartments.

Analysts point out the fact that Coimbatore is no longer just a retirement destination or the last choice of those buyers who could not afford the relatively costly markets of South India, like Chennai or Bangalore. As a matter of fact, the city has rather shaped up different than what it was actually thought of in the early stages of the evolution of the property market over here.

In order to understand the economy of the city in general and its property market in particular one has to find answers to certain pointed questions about the city. What has changed this thought process? Has the city’s economy reached its optimum level of boom? Whether there are more commercial activities in the city? Have big brands found a natural destination in Coimbatore the way they found cities like Gurgaon or Pune in the early stages of evolution?

The answer to most of these questions is behind the success of Coimbatore as an emerging lifestyle city. Most importantly, most of these answers are affirmative, even though it may be just the first flush of aspiration for the city. The young ex-pat professionals in Coimbatore coming from across the country have nevertheless changed their lifestyle choices and preferences in this rather conservative city.

Today, because of these working-class ex-pats Coimbatore no longer bears the look of a tier II city that has its economy dependent on the local small scale business. It is blossoming into a corporate city though the scale and volume have not reached the peak level, compared to other big metro cities.

The trend of lifestyle and aspiration driven developments is not confined to the residential segment only. It is rather very much visible in the commercial properties as well. The growth of the business of the city beyond just Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has ensured that quality office spaces are being developed and the mushrooming IT/ITeS sector has made sure that there are occupiers for these spaces as well.

The rental growth may not have been phenomenal but at least the spaces are being occupied at a time when the economy has been slow-moving and commercial property has been worst hit in some other cities that are better positioned on the corporate aspiration level.

The brands across the segment are also nowadays flocking to the city; thus making sure that the growth of the retail space is steady, if not phenomenal. The young aspirational working class has made sure that these brands are not out of the business in the city. On a macro level, it has made sure that the growth is heterogeneous and it is across the developments, including hospitality.

It is not just about the branded hotel chains. Today there are entertainment and lifestyle options increasingly spreading in the city. Multiplex culture is also witnessing to a decent business. Coimbatore is increasingly scaling up on the index of aspiration level and lifestyle choices.

So, Coimbatore is no more a non-descript city on the real estate landscape that has only the occupiers driven by affordability. Nor is it a city which can just be termed as a tier II city waiting for its moment of growth.

The catalysts of the growth are already there and it is quite obvious that if the city could maintain its upscale momentum in a bearish market, Coimbatore can emerge as one of the key lifestyle markets once the overall economic sentiments are bullish. Coimbatore has indeed arrived with a bang on lifestyle and aspiration that is fuelling the corporate culture in the city.