Buying a home is easily one of the most polarizing topics in personal finance. While many swear by the flexibility of renting, I’ve always been a strong believer in owning the roof over your head for self-use. I could probably deep dive into the "Buy vs. Rent" debate in a separate article, but for now, let’s talk about the how and the what—specifically, my decision to buy a flat in My Home Apas.
The Non-Fungible Nature of Real Estate
The first fundamental thing any buyer or investor needs to understand is that housing is a non-fungible asset. This isn’t like buying equity. If you buy 100 shares of Reliance, your shares are identical to mine. But in a project like My Home Bhooja or My Home Apas, no two flats are truly equal.
On average, if a society has 1,000 flats, probably only 250 are the "great" ones—the ones with the right facing, the right floor, and the right view that everyone actually wants. Getting a combination of a top-tier society, a great unit, a prime location, and a workable budget is incredibly hard.
With that in mind, here is my analysis of the pros and cons of My Home Apas.
The Project Analysis: My Home Apas
1. Location & Connectivity
Situated on the Kokapet lakeside, the location is a major draw. Unlike what most people fear, this lake is being maintained very well; there is an NGO and CSR activity actively working to turn the lakeside into a tourist spot.
The connectivity is unmatched:
Direct access to the ORR, Financial District, and Neopolis.
Connectivity to the Kokapet inner market area through the Golden Mile extension road.
Proximity to major hospitals, schools, and eateries. In fact, I’m of the firm opinion that while Neopolis is the future, Kokapet offers far better livability for the next 5-6 years. For my family, this is a crucial factor. My kids are growing up now, and I can't wait half a decade for a neighborhood to 'mature.' We need a established society in a developed area where schools, clinics, and daily conveniences are already operational. Buying in Apas allows us to enjoy the benefits of being next to the future CBD(Central Business district) without living in the middle of a perpetual construction zone.
2. The Builder & Master Plan
My Home is a Tier-1 brand in Hyderabad, known for quality and speed. This provides a necessary safety net if I ever need to liquidate.
What makes Apas rare is the low density—less than 100 flats per acre. It features a ~1.75-acre central lawn, and because the majority of the boundary is surrounded by the lake, most flats don't have privacy issues and enjoy great balcony views. Because of the placements of towers and multiple open spaces ( central lawn, elevated sky walk area), strategic placement of swimming pool, clubhouse etc, good setbacks from nearby land parcels; most flats would enjoy great ventillation.
Due to the above reason, the ratio of good flats is much higher in Apas unlike the 250 out of 1000 flats example I gave at the start. This is one of the biggest strength of My Home Apas.
The neighbouring land parcels will house premium properties (SSI Marquise and Lansum Elena), which reduces the risk of "unknown" developments and ensures the entire area remains a premium residential hub.
3. The Specs: A Hit & Miss
At this budget and location, the specs are a bit of a mixed bag.
The Hits:
Brushed Aluminium Sliding windows: The sliding windows and doors are a huge win. Instead of standard UPVC, they’ve used heavy brushed aluminium (similar to Nishada). The owners pushed hard to ensure this. Each flat also includes a private lobby area and internal 8-foot doors.
The Lifts: They’ve provided 6 lifts per tower for only 5 flats per floor (across 45 floors). This ratio is excellent and ensures you won't be stuck with long waiting times. My PLAI Score is 2.57 for My Home Apas (https://blog.pnkj.dev/plai-west-hyd)
The Misses:
The flooring is the biggest disappointment. We should expect Italian marble at this price point (which Nishada had at launch), but Apas gets standard vitrified tiles of 1200 mm X 800 mm size. Some builders are giving ultra large 1800 mm X 1200 mm size tiles. Personally I would prefer them over italian marble too as they don't need any maintenance. Even slightly larger 1600 mm X 800 mm size tiles would have been better.
The floor-to-floor height is 11 feet and the floor-to-ceiling height is 10'2", which is okay, but 4"-6" more would have been ideal.
The doors have good height but are on the narrower side, especially the internal doors.
There is no VRV provided, though I personally find this manageable as a per-flat setup. Based on my upcoming experience with VRV in another flat of mine, I will decide whether I should put VRV for my APAS flat or not.
4. The Lakeside USP
Apas features a special Skywalk designed as an elevated walking track along the lakeside. They have installed an STP for the lake water and aerators to ensure oxygenation and flow. While there’s always a risk with lake maintenance, its proximity to Neopolis makes it a safe bet that the government will keep it well-maintained. By the way, if you are still wondering, there is no HYDRAA risk. The entire structure including the basement area is outside the buffer zone, only the open garden area ( Elevated sky walk, half basketball court) etc is in buffer zone which is allowed according to irrigation department and HYDRAA norms.
Kokapet lake is a prime focus of not only the govt but also different private companies for CSR and NGO for Lake renovation.
GEF India along with HMDA is doing the lake renovation work. Dhruvansh - an NGO is not only helping the renovation work but also running multiple lake cleaning drives so far. You can go to the following map location to see the lake and garden renovation work being done for Kokapet lake. (https://maps.app.goo.gl/zrXMMEhzNCrNTK1PA). See this and decide for yourself the future of the lake area.
The STP Risk
I often get this question: "Will the STP stink ?". Well, I think it is better to have a lake with STP than a lake without an STP. Kokapet Lake STP was the first STP installed by the KCR Govt as part of a bigger lake maintenance initiative and in fact has some cutting edge technologies to ensure it performs properly. If a STP is equipped to handle the load, it doesn't stink.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/cutting-edge-tech-at-kokapet-stp/articleshow/101426883.cms
In my personal opinion, both governments had good focus on lake restoration/maintenance, and Kokapet lake is surrounded by premium properties of Kokapet and Neopolis. It is a strategically important lake for the city and the private players around it. I personally think it is worth the risk given the benefits of a lakeside property.
5. Sustainable Amenities
Apas has a long list of practical and sustainable amenities and there is no amenity trap. Before I give a list of amenities I like, Let us understand what do I mean by amenity trap.
Builders are giving lot of amenities nowadays to attract customers. Lets take the example of the neighbouring project: SSI Marquise. It is an ultra luxury project with high end specs and flats starting at the size of 5185 sqft. But there are only 296 flats in the entire society which creates 2 issues. One: All of the amenities are burdened by a small group of people, thus increasing the maintenance cost post the handover to RWA. This is probably fine with folks who can afford a flat in Marquise. But the second problem is that lot of times the critical mass needed to run some amenities properly is not there: for eg, a Super market, A yoga room with a teacher coming regularly etc. There is second type of unsustainable amenity: crazy amenity. I would like to give another real life example: Trilight Rise with 9 Project offering Pet Spa. There are 397 flats in that project. Even if we assume 10% flat owners have a dog/cat, it would mean probably 1 pet doing spa every day. Even without any judgment on the amenity, I can safely say that this is absurd and not even remotely sustainable. It is just a waste of space and resources.
Apas on the other hand has long list of practical amenities and has a 1338 flats capacity to make most of the amenities sustainable. There will be critical mass to run every amenity smoothly and yet keep the maintenance cost to a decent amount. Some of the amenities I like are: Temp controlled swimming pool, temple, cycle track, sky walk, tennis and pickleball court etc. Apas has a 72k sqft club house which is decently big enough for the number of residents (1338 flats). To understand the usage ratio, Avatar has 100k sqft club house for ~2700 flats. Apas’s club house will have the standard stuff like Gym, badminton courts, squash court, yoga room, banquet hall etc. It will also have provisions for atm, super market, crèche, spa and salon, pharmacy etc
6. Spacious & functional floor plans
My Home is known for functional luxury where they prioritise functionality over just aesthetic appeal. My Home Apas has spacious 3 bhks of 2765 sqft as the starting size. No area of the flat feels cramped up. Even the secondary bedrooms are large enough to have a king size bed with study table. The home theatre room available in the larger units is a versatile room which can act as a media room, a home office, guest bedroom or a hobby room. All flats have big living area with large balconies which would provide a feeling of luxury. The bigger flats come with an external maid room which is pretty handy for live-in maids or convert it to a home office where clients can visit without hampering the privacy of the home
Why I Picked My Specific Unit (3240 sqft)
When looking for liquidity and livability, I focused on a specific configuration. Apas has units from 2765 to 3860 sqft. The 3240 sqft unit is a "sweet spot" but also a rarity—it accounts for only about 6% of the total units (90 out of 1338). Only Tower 1 and Tower 4 have one such flat per floor.
The "4BHK" Factor
Technically, it’s a 3BHK + Home Theatre, but the HT room is a generous 150 sqft (13' X 11' 7''). Because this unit also includes a 4th washroom (powder room), it effectively functions as a 4BHK. Atleast I take the liberty of calling this a 4BHK
The Layout & View
We loved the plan: a big master bedroom with a dedicated closet, a huge open living area, and a large utility space. Being on a higher floor, our balconies oversee the narrow part of the Kokapet lake with a direct, uninterrupted view of the Neopolis skyline (protected by the villas near DSR Valar). From this height, we can potentially see the entire Gandipet lake area (depending on how much is blocked by future construction).
Final Thoughts
Is it perfect? No. The tiles and door widths could have been better. But when you factor in the low density, the specific "non-fungible" view of the lake and Neopolis, and the Tier-1 builder tag, it’s a decision I’m very comfortable with.
