Housing lottery: Mhada's Charkop homes cost twice that of anywhere else in city
Houses of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) at Charkop in Kandivali will be the costliest of the lot up for sale at the lottery this year. In fact, they may also turn out to be unaffordable to the income groups for whom they have been constructed.
A comparison between the low income group (LIG) and middle income group (MIG) homes at Charkop and those under the same income groups at other locations in Mumbai has revealed that the home prices at Charkop are costlier by almost twice the amount.
For instance, a house built for the MIG in Sion costs `24.86 lakh, while a house for the same income group in Charkop costs `47.6 lakh. Similarly, an LIG home at Charkop in Kandivali has a price tag of `31.3 lakh, against the pricing of `15 lakh at Vinoba Bhave Nagar in Kurla for the same income category.
“The entire issue is that of affordability. How can a person whose monthly income is between `8,001 to `20,000 get an 80 per cent housing loan for a home that costs `31.3 lakh?” questioned Prasanchandra Lakhani, an applicant.
When a Mhada official was questioned about the high costs of the so-called “affordable homes” in Charkop, he replied, requesting anonymity, “The prices are affordable when calculated on a per square feet basis. These homes at Charkop are bigger in size as compared to homes under the same category at other locations. While the ones at Kurla have an area of 269 sq ft for the LIG, the Charkop homes have 462 sq ft.”
On the issue of whether an applicant who is eligible for these homes can actually avail a housing loan of such a huge amount, all that the official said was, “Isn’t it obvious that the family will have savings that they have kept aside only to purchase their dream home?”
Meanwhile, things didn’t improve for the Mhada on the third day of availability of applications for the housing lottery. Of the three Mhada websites, only one (www.mhada.org) was operational on Saturday.
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