Most people of Kerala even in its capital city of Trivandrum did not consider apartments / flats as an option for a home as recent as 10-15 years back. However, in the last decade this has changed due to the scarcity of land and the upwardly mobile middle class wanting to move closer to the city.
The new nuclear families which broke away from the traditional joint families were another major factor. Big joint families in traditional houses were now two or more nuclear families with fewer members. Traditional “nalukettu” styles of houses were no more popular. Instead 3 or 2 bedroom flats became more common. With the emergence of nuclear homes, security of the houses, which was not a major problem during the joint family system, is better taken care of by apartment complexes which usually have round the clock security.
Now Trivandrum flats have changed the look of the city with many leading property developers building many flats and gated community villa projects in the city.
These can be attributed to many factors. The improved financial status of the middle class in the state is the most prominent among them. Being the capital city, this is especially true in the case of Trivandrum, which has a large number of Govt. officials and other bureaucrats. The other contributing factors are the influx of foreign money through Non Resident Indian investments in the city. In addition, the easy availability of affordable home loans to the middle class. This created a lot of demand for quality living spaces.
In short the different socio-economic factors contributed to the change of life style that reflects in the human habitats also.
Real estate developers in and outside Kerala, have identified this opportunity, to create flats and villa projects which can cater the demands of customers of all types, both low and high end of the market. Apartments which are in the middle range of the market are more popular in Trivandrum.
