MHADA lowers cost of flats in Mumbai by 25%-30% after poor sales

Hit by poor sales, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) announced it will reduce by 25% to 30% the prices of the 1,194 apartments it plans to sell in a lottery draw in the next few months. MHADA president Uday Samant said it was imperative to lower prices to attract buyers. “We want to offer MHADA houses at affordable rates, and we are doing everything to cut the costs,” he said. After the reduction, a MHADA apartment in Lower Parel which earlier cost ?1.40 crore will now be priced at ?99 lakh, Samant said. MHADA sells apartments at subsidised rates, as it is a government agency with its own land bank. This means, spending on acquiring land is negligible compared to the private market, where land price keeps property rates high. As a result, MHADA houses have been in great demand in the past 10 years, 14.13 lakh people have applied to buy 23,742 houses that were put up for sale. But, over the past few years, the rising cost of flats have meant fewer people are signing up to buy them.