Due to the continuing boom in
real estate in Kerala, there is increasing competition for the use of the urban open spaces. It has resulted in the occupation of each site by the social and economic classes which are able to derive the greatest benefits out of the available land. From the depths of complacency, urban Kerala is now able to prove its entrepreneurial credentials.
In recent times, the high income class groups that have formed residential associations have been able to influence and modify the urban spaces by taking the right decisions and making better choices, as they hold the status, power and wealth needed to effect major changes. The elites are the most distinguished and the most powerful groups in the society and are important constituents of the class-system. They generally, tend to occupy strategically sound urban lands on good sites having higher intensity of basic services, transportation amenities and communication linkages. However, in recent times, the location and characteristics of the elite residential colonies in Kerala are changing faster in response to the physical, economic, social and political forces operating in the cities.
The present economic environment in the prominent cities in the state is characterized by increased levels of individual incomes in most nuclear families. It has altered the dominant perceptions, attitudes and decision making ability of the modern professional. The urban limits of the cities in Kerala have expanded four-fold and has incorporated the green and calm meadows at a higher price. This space is slowly reorienting itself on the way in which unequal class relationships and patterns of capital accumulation intersect with each other.
Researching into the problems facing urban Kerala requires much patience and dedicated effort needs to be taken to collect data from reliable sources. When analyzing the present real estate trends relying on data from the registration department alone may not help to get to the ground realities. This is due to the fact that in most of the real estate transactions taking place in the state, the people involved used to undervalue the real value of the property and do not report the actual value at which the transaction was concluded.