Bangalore projects

Its an exciting time for housing projects aimed at the lower income segment in Bangalore. 2 new builders have entered this space (first time projects for both builders but believed to be be looking at this as a pan Indian business). The 2 projects are located in the Anekal area - close to Electronics city and also industrial areas on the Hosur road.

1. Value Budget Housing Corp (VBHC) - promoted by Jerry Rao (ex Citibank and Mphasis). The project launched on Aug 18 and in our mind, this offers very good value but not sure the pricing is low enough for the MHFC target group (which typically earns about 10,000 to 15,000 a month and can probably afford a house of about 5-6 lakhs max). In the 1st phase, the cheapest flat on offer at VBHC is about 8.2 lakhs (incl all taxes and charges) for a 1 BHK - the studios when offered will be about 5.5 lakhs. I think this pricing might be more attractive for young professionals working at Electronics City.
VBHC website link

2. Janaadhar Shubha - promoted by Ramesh Ramanathan (coincidentally also ex Citibank). While overall about 1140 flats will be developed, 1st phase will offer 520 1 BHK units (400 sq ft each) at about 5 lakhs each. This would seem to be affordable for the MHFC type of audience.
Janaadhar website link

It will be interesting to see how these projects are received by the segment it seeks to address - hopefully it will be very successful and result in further projects from the same builders and also from other developers who would be incentivised to come forward and build for this market.

Ahmedabad - Dhul Dhoyas

interesting news story on an unusual profession - the gold "dhul dhoyas" of Ahmedabad - they pay about 6,000 a month for the "privilege" of sweeping gold from the streets of the gold markets (Manek Chowk and Ratan Pol) - and earn about 15,000 a month from selling this to wholesale buyers of gold dust - they even buy the clothes of the gold labourers (some of whom are MHFC clients) who dont change their work clothes for weeks and then exchange it for cash and new clothes from the dhoyas.
Mint Article