MUMBAI: When Ratan Tata talked about his Nano dream, some enterprising builders promised the car free with a high-end apartment. Now, the Tatas are
all set to reverse the equation-they are making Nano apartments that auto makers could well offer free with their hot wheels. Tata Housing, a Tata Group company, on Wednesday unveiled its pan-India Shubh Griha brand, launching a low-cost housing township in Boisar, 98 km from south Mumbai and six stations after Virar on the western line. The upcoming complex, spread over 67 acres, is about 2.8 kms from the Boisar railway station and will have 1,000 small flats, the smallest measuring 283 sq ft of super built up area (SBUA) at Rs 1,380 per sq ft. Boisar, a town with about 1,500 industries and factories, has a population of about 10-15 lakh. "We are looking at first-time buyers earning a steady Rs 3 lakh to 5 lakh a year. Hordes of people travel daily between Mumbai and Boisar to work and this will be a good opportunity for them to shift to Boisar instead of living in rented accommodation,'' said Brotin Banerjee, MD and CEO of Tata Housing. Possession will be given in 2011. In the first phase, the company will construct 1,000 apartments priced between Rs 3.90 lakh and Rs 6.70 lakh excluding stamp duty. However, the these flats are tiny in size-a small one room kitchen unit will have a super built up area (SBUA) of just 283 sq ft while a large one room kitchen will measure 360 sq ft SBUA. The biggest flat (465 sq ft SBUA) will contain a bedroom, hall and kitchen. The difference between SBUA and actual carpet area of these flats would be 20% to 25%, said Banerjee. In fact, the tiniest flat will be smaller than the free tenements offered to authorised slum dwellers under the Slum Redevelopment Scheme in Mumbai. Each slum family is entitled to a 269 sq ft (carpet area) tenement. However, Banerjee said the Boisar township will also contain amenities such as hospital, school, post office, market, community hall, play garden and open landscaped area. Application form booklets will be sold for Rs 200 each at State Bank of India branches and flats will be allotted by a lottery. "We have a clause that prohibits the buyer from selling for at least nine months after allotment, to discourage speculators,'' said Banerjee. The Boisar project is being developed by Tata Housing in a joint venture with an unidentified land owner. The company expects a Rs 100 crore turnover from this project. Interestingly, many Mumbai developers who rode the property boom by catering mainly to high-income buyers are now enticing middle class clients with smaller properties outside BMC limits. Over the past four months, several builders claimed to have registered brisk sales of smaller flats in places like Thane, Virar, Panvel, Kalyan, Ambivali and even Nashik. Tanaji Malusare City (in Karjat), a Matheran Realty project, claims to have been flooded with applications (70,000) for phase one. About 40% of these are 300-sq-ft flats selling for Rs 3 lakh each. The Neptune Group is selling `nano flats' in its upcoming complex in Ambivli near Kalyan and claims to have received 1,750 bookings. The scheme has 2 BHK flats with a carpet area of 387 sq ft and 1 BHK flats with a carpet area of 233 sq ft, going for between Rs 1,499 and Rs 1,599 per sq ft. In Virar, developer Rustomjee claims to have clocked over 200 sales of its low-income houses. US-based PRA Realty, a land acquisition and real estate development company with offices in Mumbai, Pune and Chicago, is for the first time tapping the market for affordable housing in Pune, Nagpur and Nashik. Its proposed housing project on a 130-acre plot in Nagpur is looking at selling 1-BHK and 1.5-BHK flats priced between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 12.5 lakh. But the biggest rush for affordable public housing was witnessed when MHADA received a phenomenal 7.5 lakh applications for 3,863 flats across the city. MMRDA will soon have the first batch of 2,000 low cost rental houses ready in the next two months at Tanaji Malusare Complex at Karjat. The complex will house 6,000 low cost units which will have a minimum of 165 square feet, to be rented out at Rs 800 to Rs 1,500 per month. The developer will recover his cost by selling part of the complex at higher rates. Last year, a report on low-income housing in urban India, prepared by management consultants and merchant bankers Monitor Group, said it is possible to build for lower-middle class urban customers even with current land prices and construction rates.
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