Realty byte: no place for ‘nano’

Tatas might have stirred the real estate with their ‘Nano’ affordable housing in Mumbai, but the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was the first to see the potential when the market crashed last year.


In fact, sometime in November, the corporation had dangled a carrot in front of the builders and real estate developers, offering not to charge any development fees, develop civic infrastructure like internal roads, sewerage, drinking water, streetlights, etc., and even speedy approvals if they go for low-cost housing.

Municipal Commissioner S.P. Singh was very excited with the idea and was quite sure that such housing will be in great demand. In a meeting with the top builders like SMR Builders, PBEL Development, Ambience Properties, Manjira Constructions, DSL Infrastructure, Ashoka Developers and My Home Constructions, he urged them to go for apartments suitable for economically weaker sections (EWS) and the low income groups (LIG).
GoI norms

An initial base price of Rs. 2 lakh per unit was also suggested as per the Government of India’s housing guidelines where EWS units should be of 215 sq. ft size (20 sq. mts) low income group units should be 450 sq. ft (40 sq. ft). The State government had already taken up weaker section housing under the Indiramma scheme.

But while the target was 50,000 units, not even half of the buildings of 26 sq.mts. unit each, have been completed when the demand is for a whopping three lakh units in the city alone as per a government survey conducted in the capital.

The Commissioner had pointed out that high rises can be built in larger plots to cross subsidise as top floors can be sold for a higher price. Instead of letting skilled building personnel and equipment lie waste during the crunch time, builders could go low-cost housing for sections of society other than the affluent and upper middle classes to which hitherto the market was catering to, he had said.
5 p.c. space

While GHMC did not own any land, the five per cent space earmarked for such housing under the newly developed layouts in the city outskirts as per government stipulations could be pooled up for viable projects. The municipal corporation was ready to help builders get bank finance, housing loans as well as potential customers through the urban community department.

Great idea but unfortunately, it did not take off. “We had a meeting with the builders once and they promised to get back to us after being told that there would be no relaxation of building rules. Nothing happened from then onwards,” sighed a senior official. Perhaps, it’s time builders revisited the idea.