News: Car parks, area increase will boost affordable housing, say experts-24-12-2020
The decision to increase the area of affordable housing projects and allow car parks will boost affordable housing in the state, said realtors engaged in developing such housing. The government on Wednesday amended the affordable housing policy of 2013 to boost supply, create more commercial components, like shops, and make it attractive for buyers.
As per the amendments, the maximum area has been increased from 10 acres to 30 acres while the minimum area has been reduced from five to four acres, with the caveat that the size of the community building will not be reduced. Under the amended policy, the commercial area, where shops and other facilities can be set up, has been increased from 4% to 8% of the net planned area.
An important change that has been incorporated by the government, which has been a long-standing demand of developers, is that they will be allowed to provide one car park space for each unit and the rate would not be more than 5% of the cost of flat against such an allotment, a government official said.
City-based real estate developers, consultants and experts said that the amendments will give a major boost to affordable housing, as bottlenecks in supply will be removed and a large majority of buyers who refrained from purchasing houses due to lack of parking would now be more enthused.
Vinod Behl, a city-based real estate expert, said that the amended policy will ensure continuity in the recent uptick in demand after a lull due to Covid. A tripling of the project size limit and reduction in lower area limit will give supply a push, he said. “The provisions for car park space and additional commercial space for convenience shopping within the housing complex will boost demand side of affordable housing,” he said.
Gurugram has the largest number of affordable housing projects in the state and around 80 projects are in various stages of development. Given the interest shown by homebuyers, the department of town and country planning has been taking several measures to increase the availability of such units and taking steps to streamline the process.
Pankaj Bajaj, president, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), NCR, said that the existing affordable projects in Haryana would have faced parking shortage, just like DDA developments in Delhi during the 1970s and 1980s. “It was thought that the middle class uses only two-wheelers or public transport. This is not really true, especially in post-covid times,” he said.
Pradeep Aggarwal, managing director, Signature Group, said that developers would be able to increase the area of a project and space for a car park would boost projects. “The reduction of area limit for from five acres to four acres will be benefitting many developers and will give a boost to affordable housing,” he said.
Sanjiv Mann, the senior town planner, Gurugram, said that a notification for the changes would be issued soon. “These changes would give a boost to this segment and help buyers get more affordable houses,” he said.
Rajat Goel, joint managing director, MRG World, said that this was the only segment that saw maximum sales and the maximum number of new launches in 2020, as 70% of the all the launches this year were in the affordable segment. “The margin for developers will also improve and supply will also get a boost,” he said.
