In a fast paced city like Mumbai, people on an average spend more than an hour to commute on daily basis. In such circumstances, the much propagated ‘walk to work’ and ‘work life balance’ concept seems to be a long lost dream.
A commercial and retail space incorporated within the residential complex is self-sustainable. Such models have been in existence since the longest time but had lost relevance with emerging need for private residences. Now, the trend of mixed use development is back, globally, and a few developers have already started exploring and building mixed use projects in India as well.
Enhanced Livability
Setting up a full-fledged mixed use development results in a ripple effect that not only prompts but sustains the infrastructure development in the surrounding area to support the unprecedented pace of urbanization. This results in manifesting an overall strong knitted, connected community, internally and externally. The amalgamation also helps in reducing the strain on city’s services in a great way, which is becoming important than ever considering that 35% of the population resides in urban areas and is projected to only grow at a faster rate. This has been proved in cities like Tokyo, London and New York where this trend has aided in accommodating their growing urban population significantly. Mumbai too isn’t far behind in terms of keeping up with this trend with such developments already coming up at places like Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Wadala, etc., and have succeeded in attracting residents to these areas.
Livability is of the most predominant issue that this model addresses by fulfilling all the parameters such as availability of education & health care, employment opportunities, availability of open spaces – which are also part of government’s newly launched Liveability Index. All this captures the quality of development and helps in ensuring construction of holistic future-ready urban models.
Community Living
The popularity of these developments can be gauged from the fact that this model has turned out to grow as a city within a city. Along with the advantage of having quality infrastructure, the sense of living in a community has acted as a major catalyst in boosting the demand for these developments.
According to 2016 estimates, around 33% of the population desire to live in a walkable, mixed-use neighbourhood, and that’s because, it offers that sense of community to everyone who’s there. This stands true for all kinds of homebuyers including millennials.
A NAR (National Association of Realtors) study stated that one of the primary traits of millennial homebuyers is the preference for deeper sense of community besides the walkability factor. Proving the fact that all kinds of homebuyers are looking for a development offering the much desired live-work-play attribute which a mixed use model can incorporate successfully.
Therefore, the convenience of living in a mixed use development in today’s time works well with the urban audience who aspire to live at an all-inclusive complex with everything a walk away.
