Affordable Housing in Rajasthan

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ms Vasundhara Raje has recently launched a new scheme that aims to provide 20% cheaper homes to people from lower income group (LIG) and economically weaker sections (EWS). This is under the Rajasthan Housing for All project of the Rajasthan Housing Board that aims to build ten lakh homes by 2022 - 85% of which would be EWS and LIG. Under the scheme, 10% of land in both, government and private housing schemes would be reserved for LIG and EWS housing. In townships, developers would have to reserve 7% of the land for the same with the government offering a relaxation in the floor - area ratio conditions to private builders.

The Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) had under the scheme announced and then scrapped a scheme called the JDA New Flat Scheme 2015. The scheme that invited applications for 621 flats - 337 in EWS category, 219 in LIG category and 65 in MIG category - was scrapped in between after finding irregularities with allottee applications. However, the JDA has recently announced reinvitation of applications for EWS, LIG and MIG (medium income group) allotments under the same scheme.

The JDA has invited online applications for these flats from November 4 to 18 and will upload the list of allottees on their website on December 11, 2015 after documents of all allottees have been verified on December 9, 2015. A lottery of these houses would then be drawn on December 16, 2015.

MHFC has sanctioned over 1000 loans for allottees buying at these schemes in Jaipur and other districts in the state like Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur etc. and looks forward to helping out even more allottees needing loans to buy houses under these schemes.

Bhubhaneshwar Development Authority - 7,000 housing units coming up this year

Per this Indian Express article - link below - the Bhubhaneshwar Development Authority ("BDA") plans to build 7,000 homes this year of which 5,000 units will be built for EWS / LIG / MIG families - and after the first year, the BDA is planning to add about 5,000 low cost housing units every year. A BDA official said the purpose of the proposal, like all other affordable housing projects, is to make low cost housing available for the urban poor.  

Express article - June 13, 2014

It seems that the housing units will comprise G+4 multi-storey buildings and the BDA would like to cap the price of the lowest housing unit at Rs 5 lakh.

Of course, these will be approved projects for MHFC and we will finance successful allottees who require a loan and are from our segment (financially excluded lower income families) subject to terms and conditions.

For more details on loans available, please call our Head Office in Mumbai on 022-22660427 or email us on contact@mhfcindia.com.

EWS projects approved in Vadodara

Two housing schemes for the economic weaker sections (EWS) of the society will come up in Vasna and Sayajipura areas of the city. Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) standing committee cleared the proposals for these schemes that will come up under the chief minister's housing scheme under the public-private partnership mode. 372 apartments will be constructed under the EWS category at Vasna while 360 will come up at Sayajipura. 

TOI Article - March 8, 2014

MHFC will of course support applicants who believe they can service a loan satisfactorily but are being excluded by mainstream banks / HFCs. For more information on how to apply, and MHFC loan terms and conditions, email contact@mhfcindia.com or call on 022-22660427.

Hyderabad

We visited the Andhra Pradesh Housing Board ("APHB") last week in Hyderabad / Kukatpally after it announced the allotment of 1046 flats to the LIG segment - for more info on the project, see http://www.aphb.gov.in/Notification_WD.html.

As discussed in earlier posts, the biggest developer for EWS /LIG segments is the state (mainly through municipal corporations and housing boards) and in general, flats built by the state not only are good value (since there is an element of subsidy) but also generates a strong response from actual users. In the case of private developments, there is usually no screening of buyers - both in terms of income or actual users - so often the buyers are investors from higher income segments, not the group in which MHFC is interested.

Coming back to the APHB, we visited the site at Kukatpally which was very central and seemed prima facie attractive (right next to the site was a private development coming up at a rate / sq ft approx double that of the state project). We also met with officials and inferred from discussions that there were several allottees who were finding it difficult to raise financing for precisely the reason that MHFC exists - because the allottees lacked documentation and could not qualify for loans from mainstream banks. We hope to help these allottees and also help buyers on other housing board projects coming up in other cities and towns in Andhra Pradesh (over 5,000 "Siddhi" flats for the urban lower income segments to be offered in 2010). We felt that if we spread the word (that there is an institution like MHFC to support the informal sector) early, then the response to the state projects, while already strong, might be enhanced as more from the informal sector would come forward and apply for an affordable home.

NAREDCO conference on PPPs in Housing

MHFC will be presenting at the 1 day NAREDCO (National Real Estate Dev Council) conference on Public Private Partnerships in Housing - in Delhi on Oct 9, 2009. This is a topic very close to us - as we believe that only by partnering with the state (housing boards, municipal corporations etc) can real impact be achieved as (a) the state is the biggest developer by far and (b) has real focus on EWS / LIG housing.

link to the event below
www.naredco.org/event_new2009.htm

Housing Boards

While its been very encouraging to see private developers enter the urban low income housing space (defined by us as being flats of approx Rs 5-6 lakhs), and we certainly want to partner with these developers, there is no question that in terms of numbers, the state continues to be the largest developer. While housing boards and local development authorities have always built for the EWS / LIG segments, in recent years, due to the govt's inclusion focus and the availabiity of JNNURM finance (for 62 cities), there have been several urban housing programs, which completely eclipse the numbers from the private sector. For eg - the state of Andhra has plans to build over 170,000 homes, Rajasthan over 100,000, cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Lucknow have plans in the tens of thousands. More importantly, the state is driven by social objectives and thus irrespective of economic swings, will remain focussed on this segment. Further, while there will be some leakages, the buyer will be from LIG segments (as against buyers from higher income segments, including investors, being attracted to the private projects meant for LIG segments). Thus, if MHFC has to make impact, it will probably have to come from tie ups with state agencies like MHADA / DDA, state housing boards, municipal corporations, etc who are building for the weaker sections and need to fill the last gap of buyer financing.