Residents of Pune looking for affordable housing schemes are pretty disappointed with the 2-day property exhibition, Profest 2012, of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) Pune. They allege the exhibition only caters to the higher-income group. Almost every stall at the exhibition offers tailor-made homes promising every facility and amenity.
“The cost of construction materials is skyrocketing. So, we are unable to keep the rates low,” some of the prominent builders at the exhibition tried to justify their point.
“The government has also increased the ready reckoner rate, which has led to further escalation of prices. Besides, land prices in the city are on the rise. In such a situation it is difficult to keep the prices low,” a participating developer said.
The exhibition offers housing schemes in the vicinity, on the outskirts of Talegaon and Ambegaon. There was hardly any stall that had homes for those living in the city.
President of CREDAI, Pune, Satish Magar, blamed the hike in property rates on the increasing cost of raw materials and various government policies. He said that the diminishing availability of space and increasing demand for houses would soon be addressed with many new projects.
Profest 2012 was inaugurated by divisional commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh, district collector Vikas Deshmukh, Pune Municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma.
