Themed apartment complexes. Why it's important to have the right theme.
On the way to work yesterday, I heard a jingle on the radio, advertising a 'disney-themed' apartment complex. Sure, people have disney crazed children - although, there's a better chance they're Temple Run crazed, these days - but to assume parents would be willing to pour in their lives' savings into a house in a fairytale land is ludicrous. Their kids aren't going to stay five forever!
That said, the idea of a themed apartment is a good one. The concept of a 'joint-family' is more Indian than, even, population explosion is. However, tales abound of intrusion by the elders, lack of empathy on the children's part and battles over who controls family life. This is why more couples find the luxuries of a nuclear family more enticing - authority over what happens in the homes, privacy and freedom - and thus, move out of their parents' homes and into their own. While the parents and children alike, heave a sigh of relief and simultaneously lament the new distance, the realty builders bask in the glory of their flourishing businesses.
Builders today have themes ranging from 'nourish-your-young-athlete' to 'close-to-nature' to 'two-minute-walk-from-tech-park'. While these are all inviting, I find it hard to understand how one overwhelmingly alluring theme is left unexplored - the same old joint family, but with separate houses.
Imagine an apartment complex catering to 40-somethings with a promise that they can have their parents in the same apartment complex as them, minus all the drawbacks of a joint family. All builders have to do is build a three-bedroom house and a one-bedroom house together, and put down a condition that the 1-bhk and the 3-bhk in a particular housing block must not belong to the same family - so you’re on different floors - and market it, in that manner. Not only does this preserve the nuclear family life, it also makes caring for the elders a lot easier on the 40-somethings. The benefits of living together, yet apart are just too many to ignore and builders can benefit from giving this theme some thought.
Think about all those times your children and your parents have fought over the TV remote control or the time your parents have given you an earful over spending a bomb on the jacuzzi, or over you and your spouse settling down with a bottle of wine after a long day instead of spending time with them. Better still, think of the time you regretted not being able to empathize when they complained about how far off you are.
And now, imagine being able to avoid all that. That's a real fairytale land, isn't it?
Not to mention, Disney World like revenues for builders. Prestige, reading this?
