Affordable or mass housing is the need of the hour in the city and can be
certainly converted into a reality. All it needs is the will from all the stakeholders
including the developer, government and, most importantly, the buyer, says
Nayan Bheda, Chairman & Managing Director,
Neptune Group.
Buying a house in Mumbai
is nothing less than a
dream come true for most
of us. Where realty prices
are skyrocketing, that home you
have always wanted to own is
perhaps getting more and
more elusive.
The common man wants a
decent space to live in - one that
accommodates his family, is easily
accessible, and equipped with a
few basic amenities. Mumbai's
realty market has been snubbing
him off for some time now. Rising
interest rates, inflation and escalating
commodity prices have
taken a toll on the country's
biggest real estate market. Affordable
housing has remained a distant
dream.
For a metropolis like Mumbai
that is teeming with people, the
concept of affordable housing
becomes all the more imperative.
The big question, though, is does
affordable housing really exist in
Mumbai?
The government has put the figure
for the housing shortage in
urban India at a staggering 26.53
million units in the 11th Five-Year
Plan 2007-2012. In Mumbai,
developers battle high land
prices, input costs, labour and
construction material costs. Add
to that a lack of space and the fact
that the developer cannot compromise
on quality and we have
realty imbroglio.
What is affordability really? It is
actually affordability towards a
product as well as the source to
buy that product. For instance,
buying a home today is not just
about raising the funds for it. It is
also about bank loans, rate of
interest, fuel prices, cost of daily
grocery, children's education,
other loans etc.
The problem is that buyers cannot
postpone buying a house
indefinitely. They end up buying
despite tight purse strings
because they have to.
So then, does it mean that affordable
housing isn't possible in
Mumbai at all? Of course it is. Perhaps,
we might have to go a little
beyond the prime areas of the city
- locations that are feasible and
are not too inaccessible either and
within MMR.
Studies have shown that some of
the key aspects of affordable housing
in India are location of the
project, property specifications,
amenities provided, price
identified and finally the size of
the project.
The central suburbs of the city,
like Dombivli or Kalyan, are a
viable option. These suburbs are
great locations for creating mass
housing - a term better suited than
affordable housing. A clutch of
new builders across the country
has come up with low cost projects
with houses costing below `20
lakh in this stretch. The Maharashtra
Chamber of Housing
Industry has also embarked on an
ambitious plan of facilitating the
creation of five lakh affordable
houses by 2015.
But we need more. To make
affordable housing a success in
India, the government needs to
incentivise developers through
cheaper land, awarding higher
FSI, infrastructure development,
easier home loans and interest
rate subsidies to motivate them to
participate actively and aggressively
in this segment.
Also, a developer has to run from
pillar to post to acquire the necessary
permissions. We need a single
window clearance to expedite
the process because inevitably a
developer is stuck in a labyrinth of
approvals that hinders the completion
of the project.
Affordable or mass housing is
the need of the hour in the city and
can be certainly converted into a
reality. All it needs is the will from
all the stakeholders including the
developer, government and, most
importantly, the buyer.