Peninsula Land Limited has forayed into the affordable housing segment with the launch of its new project `addressOne` located at Gahunje, Pune. Spread across 50 acres, addressOne is strategically located on the Mumbai-Pune expressway on the Pune side, next to the MCA cricket stadium.
While, ATS has focused primarily on boutique and premium housing, HomeKraft would exclusively cater to the housing needs of affordable and mid income housing groups.
Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited (MLDL) has launched ‘Happinest – Palghar’ – the first affordable housing project to be undertaken by a joint platform between the Company and HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Fund-1 (‘HDFC Capital’), a fund managed by HDFC Capital Advisors Ltd.
With an investment of INR 600 crores, Provident Park Square at Judicial Layout, Kanakapura Road, Bangalore, is a mixed development project which caters to the needs of the new age home buyer.
As I enter inside the under-construction project with less than 6000 apartments spread over 60 acres to be built in four phases, the first visual impression is that the project is a premium or luxury housing. The sports theme-based landscaping, elevated walkways and greenery beneath does not give the impression that the ticket size in this project starts with INR 55 lakh only.
As home buyers rise up the economic ladder and get more exposed to the lifestyles of the rich in other countries, they demand similar services here in India as well. This phenomenon then becomes a ‘brand driver’ for developers who possess the skills and resources to cater to this segment.
An outside view on the Indian real estate market may get confused with the fact that mismatch in delivery and performance is lesser in luxury projects than even affordable housing. Isn’t it a fact that buyers in low income housing are more price conscious and more concerned to check & cross check than those nouveau riche who have enough money to splurge?
The satellite towns and periphery locations of major cities across the country has been stigmatised as the last refuge of the struggling home buyers. The collective consciousness looks at these locations meant for buyers who have no choice but to compromise with their wants and needs. These locations often have not helped their cause with poor infrastructure and connectivity, thus lending credence to the critics’ aspersions as down market locations.
The Central and States governments are now contemplating many ways and means to provide access to housing for all. Affordable housing will not only fill the housing gap but be the next major economic growth driver by creating more than 2 million jobs during the period till 2022.
Affordable housing and Mumbai often sound to be quite contradictory. The peninsular city with limited land parcels and load on the infrastructure often makes an urban planner fumble for offering any sustainable solution. Critics hence dismiss the very idea of affordable housing in the city. In Mumbai the development and growth of affordable housing has also been facing significant challenges owing to a gamut of fiscal, regulatory and urban issues.