Houses in Kolkata: How to buy the right home for your kids

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

With the plethora of options for houses in Kolkata, you will realize buying the right home for your family in the City of Joy is not as easy. People dream of buying an ideal home and spend years planning its purchase by looking through the right property options and revising the wish list over and over again. If you have been in the situation of buying a house, you must be aware of the common dilemma during the buying process, especially if you have kids or are planning to start a family. 

Checklist to buy the right houses in Kolkata for your family, especially your kids

Buying a house for your family is an uphill task, but the process is also exciting and life-changing as you make plenty of important decisions for this new chapter of your life. Just as you need to plan ahead of time before starting a family, you also need to think of your children’s comfort, safety, and happiness while buying a house. Several homebuyers in Kolkata find themselves in a conundrum with a variety of options for houses to buy in Kolkata.  

You may have always envisioned a future, ready to move flats in Kolkata with a kitchen big enough for a family gathering, or a bedroom with bunk beds for your children. All of these are a part of the buying process, so let’s dive into the essentials of how to buy the right home for your family, especially your kids in Kolkata:

Understand the demands of life with kids

When you decide to upsize your family, your needs for an ideal home begin to change. Even the 1 bhk flat in Kolkata’s upmarket locality which previously seemed like the perfect place for your partner, suddenly seems cramped and insufficient for the demands of kids. Homebuyers with kids therefore need to look for options to sell their current home, mostly because they’ve outgrown their smaller space. 

Your life changes with kids and so does your house. Most of the parents envision their ideal home close to how they have spent their childhood. You will therefore need to make important choices like finding a home closer to schools, or considering a house with a backyard to play, to finding a place in the neighborhood of your own childhood, or a residential neighborhood with CCTV coverage and super-tight gate security. The priorities are subjective, but home and family go hand in hand, so your choices need to sync with the demand of your kids. 

Consider affordability

One of the important questions you will have to deal with while buying houses in Kolkata is affordability and your budget. You might want to check ‘how much you can afford’, along with the price of flats in Kolkata. With every square foot, your monthly budget increases and so does your property taxes. You should be careful to decide your price range on the basis of your income. If you are buying a home before having children, you should decide if both the parents will continue having a fixed income, and decide a price range accordingly. 

During the process, remember to keep your options open, and consider yourself living in that space with your kids in the future, be it in a 1 bhk flat in Kolkata or a 2 bhk flat in Kolkata. Glancing through catalogues for homes within a fixed budget opens wider market options. You may consider looking for flats in Kolkata with child-centric amenities or narrow down your search to luxurious 2 bhk flats in Kolkata, or 3 bhk flats in Kolkata that offer an upgrade in your lifestyle.

Decide on a good timing

While buying a house, you should consider if you would like to move in before you have kids or move in while you are pregnant, or move in after your child is born. Moving can be taxing, so you might want to consider the physical challenge of relocating and its challenges with children. It is also difficult for pregnant women to help with physical tasks. 

There is however no right or wrong time to purchase a house, as it all depends only on making the right choice for your family and choosing the most comfortable house for your family needs.

Prioritize proximity to schools and daycare centers

As parents, you are aware of the pivotal role education plays during a child’s formative years. Kolkata ranks among the most preferred metro cities for quality education with options for some of the finest schools in India. Since you want the best educational institution for your kids, buying a house in the vicinity of a school is an important decision to make.  

Luckily, luxury flats in Kolkata are available in all prime zones of the city. With Scottish Church Collegiate School in the North, DPS Ruby Park in the East; the BSS School in the South; to St. Xavier’s and La Martinere Boys and Girls, Don Bosco School in the Central Zone; and Asian International School at Howrah, you have ready to move in flats in Kolkata in the proximity of your child’s educational needs. If you are having a hard time choosing the best school in your locality, use trusted apps that will make the job easier for you. 

After you have sorted the school and chosen among the coveted houses in Kolkata, check a nearby pick-up and drop point. This is the next important factor to consider for parents with kids.  

With an increasing number of nuclear families and working parents, close proximity to a crèche or a daycare centre has become an important factor for buying houses in Kolkata. It is however also important to choose a crèche that is police verified, has professional and qualified staff, among other security services. Generally, daycare centers affiliated with schools, or those parts of a school chain are more reliable and have better infrastructure. With Kolkata pegged as one of the fastest-growing cities in India, the number of full-time working professionals in the city is rising. Today, there is no dearth of daycare centers in Kolkata, especially within the IT residential hubs of the city. This should make your choice of buying flats in Kolkata Rajarhat or flats in Kolkata New town easier. 

If you miss checking the options for the best available daycare centers in your locality, you might end up wasting a lot of time commuting in between dropping and picking your kids from a far-off day-care center. So be sure to check good options for crèches before buying a flat in Kolkata. 

Connectivity

Kolkata is developing at a rapid pace and with the superfluity of IT hubs mushrooming around the city, it is becoming populous with working professionals and working parents. Properties at Kolkata have a dominant preference for connectivity to the bus, metro, and local trains. If you are looking for a locality that saves time on daily commute while also being kids-friendly, here are some options to consider while buying houses in Kolkata—   

Consider proximity from school and the daily commute

As parents, you want to spend as much time as possible with your kids. Keeping this consideration in mind, try and find a house that is in close proximity to your work, so that you save time commuting. Also, due to Covid, the work-from-home culture is fast catching up, and many companies have adopted remote working as a flexible alternative. In light of these developments, you might want to look for homes that offer work lounges or shared working spaces within your community gates; this will help you have a balanced work life.

Buy homes with kid-friendly amenities

While choosing houses in Kolkata to move in with your children, you might make a wish list of your preference for kid-friendly features. It is a subjective choice, while some may prefer a house close to city gardens and playgrounds, others may prefer a house near a hospital, or to a day-care center. 

In general, it is important to have a kid-friendly house in a safe neighborhood with in-built child-friendly architecture. Some of these include plenty of storage for your children’s toys, strollers, bicycles, clothes, etc. Parents opting to buy duplex houses in Kolkata or a lavish independent house in Kolkata may also have to gate the stairs and probably avoid houses with open staircases. It would also be wise to look for a flat at Kolkata with a tall balcony grill. While buying houses in Kolkata for your family, you must also choose a locality that is quiet and less polluted so that it doesn’t affect your kid’s studies or other activities.

Planning ahead

You keep a lot at stake when you buy a house, and many couples do not wish to compromise when it comes to buying the house of their dreams. The dream gets bigger and the happiness is multiplied when you are purchasing a house to move in with your kids. To provide them the best comfort and safety, you wish to spare no expense. 

If you have a high budget, Alipore and Ballygunge are among the best preferred upmarket residential areas for houses in Kolkata. If you own a house in one of these localities, you will be enchanted by effluent bungalows safely ensconced behind high compound walls and will have an array of options to choose from duplex houses in Kolkata, and independent houses in Kolkata. Alipore and Ballygunge are the most notable upmarket residential neighborhoods in Kolkata. It is definitely a good and safe residential area to move in with your kids. New Alipore, for instance, offers the best options for schools and the New Alipore Children Park is one of the best in the city. The area also has a fair number of hospitals. 

Ballygunge on the other hand is close to the Army Public School. The area is well-connected to the local trains, taxis, buses, and the metro rail. With Park Circus and Lake Gardens in the vicinity, a great number of families have started to reside here. 

Security

Although vetting the security profile of the neighborhood is an important consideration while buying a house as-is, it’s doubly important to ensure this when you have children. Needless to say, your children will end up spending a lot of time on the shared premises of the housing complex while using amenities such as the gym & clubhouse and while running around in the gardens and play areas. While shortlisting properties in Kolkata, prioritize kid-friendly residential neighborhoods that house families similar to your own. This tactic will ensure your kids’ have a well-rounded childhood in the years to come!

In Closing

Starting a family and upsizing your home is a beautiful endeavor and calls for a celebration. Selecting the best possible house for your family needs and planning out an easy move is something that you will have to brace yourself for, but the hassle is worth it! It is life-changing, but also an exciting experience— so be thrilled to turn a house into a wonderful home for your family and get ready to settle into a new place to make memories for a lifetime!  

The following blog can be really helpful for you “Top 10 mistakes to avoid while you buy houses in Kolkata”