Borivali housing societies develop own buildings

Two more housing societies from Borivali’s IC Colony have opted for self-redevelopment of their old buildings in indications that the trend is going to pick up big time in the coming year. The residents of Jayakunj and Harmony buildings in IC Colony performed bhoomipujan of the projects this week. The two storey buildings will be redeveloped into seven-storey structures with the help of Wedevelopment, a company that will provide end-to-end services to execute the project with the funding coming from the Mumbai District Centre Cooperative Bank BJP MP Gopal Shetty, BJP MLA and chairman of MDCC Bank PravinDarekar were present at the bhoomipujan to support the initiative. The MDCC Bank has sanctioned Rs 5 crore loan each for the projects. ShrikantKunte, secretary of Harmony housing society, said that when they decided to go for redevelopment of their 30-year-old building, they took the traditional route of inviting proposals for developers. “But our plot area is 350 sqm and the builders, who showed interest, offered 20 to 22 per cent extra carpet area in the redeveloped project. All seven members in the society felt that it was too less. We then heard about the concept of self-redevelopment and decided to examine the option,” Kunte told media. The society then approached Wedevelopment headed by PranayGoyal, who provided extensive presentation on the benefits of self-development. “Under the self-redevelopment model, we will now get 41 per cent extra area. We have two sizes of flats — 420 sqft and 650 sq ft. Both will get 41per cent more carpet area. Wedevelopment will provide us end-toend services from getting approvals till possession and execute the project within 18 months,” Kunte said, adding that the commencement certificate is expected within a week after which construction will start. Vijay Lade, chairman of JayaKunj CHS that has eight flats of 460 sqft each, said his society too went through the regular developer-driven process initially, but was not happy with the extra carpet area offered. “In self-redevelopment, we are getting 44 per cent area. Wedevelopment is providing us all the services. More importantly, the society members will retain the control of the project. We have tied up with HDFC which will help us sell the saleable component for a brokerage,” said Lade. Lade said that when the project is complete, the profit will be shared by all society members in equal measure. “The sevenstorey building will have nine saleable flats and expected to generate Rs 16 crore at the rate of Rs 24,000 per sq ft. We expect a profit of Rs 3.5 lakh per member,” he said. Wedevelopment’s managing director PranayGoyal said his company has empanelled building contractors, architects and other experts. “The initial stage in self-redevelopment like arranging finance, gearing up to make tough and critical decisions, working with different professionals gives societies major jitters. But, we bring to the table professional management, transparency, risk mitigation, and most importantly, structured processes. We will have daily and weekly briefings to the society once the projects go live,” said Goyal. Self-redevelopment as a model has been gradually but steadily catching up in the Mumbai real estate sector. “We have about 600 societies knocking on our doors so far. Around 100 of them are at an advanced stage of due diligence. We have given approval to 14 societies and six societies are done with bhoomipujan. Two of them have already built about nine floors,” said PravinDarekar, chairman of Mumbai District Central Co-operative Bank. Darekar added that Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis has backed self-redevelopment firmly, and MHADA has set up a separate cell to prioritise its projects. “MHADA vice-president MilindMhaiskar has been personally scrutinising and clearing proposals coming to the cell. We hope that the Maharashtra government makes self-redevelopment a state policy which will provide it a further fillip. I have sought a meeting with the CM to discuss this.”