According to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s (Mhada) Konkan Board lottery, Thane is said to be the most preferred location for purchasing a house. The demand ratio for a single apartment in Thane is 1:442, which means 442 buyers for a single apartment, followed by 1:207 in Mira Road and 1:21 in Vengurla.
Virar has received the lowest demand in the lottery this year. The demand ratio for Virar is 1:3. “The price of apartments in Virar is comparatively higher than other locations due to which we believe that Virar has got very low response. One of the reasons for the apartments in Virar being costlier than compared to a Thane and Mira Road is because the buildings in Virar were developed via turnkey basis. However, we have got applications from almost 1.34 lakh home buyers which is more than the demand made in the Mumbai Board lottery of 2015,” said Vijay Lahane, chief executive officer, Konkan Board.
‘Turnkey’ is when one pays the fees and the consultancy researches on the particular project and delivers it after completion.
“Another reason for Thane having more applications than the others is because it has apartments in the Economic Weaker Segment (EWS) under which apartments measuring 250 square feet were available for Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh,” added Mr Lahane.
The prices of the homes in EWS segment are from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh depending on the area. For the Low Income Group (LIG) segment, the price of a house is Rs 22 lakh, for the Middle Income Group (MIG) segment it is Rs 40 lakh and for the High Income Group (HIG) segment the cost is Rs 28 lakh as the six apartments in this segment are constructed in Vengurla, where the prices are low.
Mhada announced a lottery of 4,275 affordable homes for the Konkan region and it is scheduled on February 24.
“Thane being a cosmopolitan city is naturally the preference of every other individual and also the upcoming infrastructure projects for Thane will naturally boost the public as well as the private housing market in Thane,” said Ajay Chaturvedi, real estate expert.
