House hunt

Assalamu alaikum,

We went on a househunting spree last saturday. We own a small piece of land with an old building which we have rented out. we were in a dilemma whether to build a new house on that piece of land or sell that and buy an apartment in the nearby posh locality. There is a sudden boom in the realty, nearly five to six apartment complexes are coming up so we thought it could be the right time to buy an apartment. So off we went on house hunting.

We live in what they call the heart of the city. the prices are really high compared to the rest of the city. A square feet of built area costs Rs.17,000/-, that's roughly about 340 dollars. So a decent apartment of about 1500 sq feet with one covered car parking costs about 2.2 crore rupees, about 22 million rupees. With 300 sq feet deducted for the common area, the floor area of an apartment is just 1200 sq feet. Subhanallah that is a huge sum.

After much thought we decided we better build our own house. Even with half of 2.2 crores we could build a nice house of about  2100 sq feet with interior decoration, 2 covered car parking and could still afford to have a terrace garden. The only drawback being how congested the locality is. One reason why we are not ready to leave this area is the proximity to mosques and madrassaa. There is a mosque around every street corner.  It  gives my son the much needed islamic environment to grow in, something I missed as a child.

One thing I hate living among muslims here is their lack of sense of hygiene. Entrance to hindus's household are swept clean, sprinkled with water, decorated with beautiful kolam. we need not have to follow their custom, at least we can keep our sorroundings clean which most muslims here don't do while Islam lays much stress on cleanliness.

Hoping things will change for the best Inshaallah, Untill next time....
Fi Amanallah.