Govt falters on 5 lakh affordable houses scheme.

Courtesy:TIMES OF INDIA

Tomorrow, it will be exactly two years since Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) and the state government inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The intent was to develop five lakh affordable homes in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). However, in a recent statement, MCHI has claimed that nothing has been accomplished in the last 24 months. According to the builders’ body, the proposal to create five lakh houses as part of the Homes for All initiative between the real estate industry and the Maharashtra government is gathering dust in Mantralaya.

Distant dream
“The overall objective of the initiative was to address the yawning housing demand-supply gap and to provide affordable homes to the economically weaker sections, lower income group and middle income group,” Paras Gundecha, president of MCHI-CREDAI said. In this whole initiative the builders were going to develop the affordable homes on their projects and lands. MCHI also claims that the availability of these five lakh houses would have eased the demand-supply mismatch and kept the market rates under some kind of check. “But unfortunately, today, Mumbai has emerged as the costliest real estate market in the country,” said Gundecha. Gundecha claims the government usually doesn’t give clearances and the few ventures that get the nod are stopped midway. If the same situation persists, then nothing will happen even in the next five years, they say.

High-rises, high prices: Builders say if the project had come to fruition, the demand-supply mismatch in Mumbai, which has emerged as the costliest real estate market in the country, would have been checked to a great extent.

Decision deficit?
According to MCHI, in spite of repeated reminders to the authorities at various levels, nothing has been accomplished, though, as per the MoU, the state government was to extend all necessary cooperation. The MoU envisaged government steps like including revamping legislation, offering incentives to developers, and authorising the nodal agency to provide for a single-window clearance to projects comprising affordable homes. The pact was signed between the then chief minister Ashok Chavan and the then MCHI president Pravin Doshi. Even other ministers and several bureaucrats were present in the meeting. However, with the new CM and the change in bureaucracy, builders say things have changed dramatically.

The government claims that it’s unfair on the part of the builders to play this blame game. “We had meetings with the builders, there were engagements with the chief minister – both the past and the present one. However, some of their demands were practical, and others weren’t. Hence, not everything could be accepted. We did try to accommodate the builders and if the projects didn’t start then it’s not just our fault,” said Sachin Ahir, state housing minister.

April 28, 2010
Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry and the state government inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aim of developing five lakh affordable homes in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Will take 3 years to clear unsold stock of flats in Mumbai

Skyline of Mumbai from across Back Bay. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are so many residential flats lying unsold in Mumbai that it will take more than three years to clear the stock. This means the skyrocketing price of your dream house might ease up.
The value of the current unsold housing stock in Mumbai is around Rs8,535crore.

According to the quarterly report released by real estate research firm Liases Foras, there is 12.9 crore sqft inventory (housing projects launched, but not necessarily built) with 1.13 lakh housing units lying unsold in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), which includes the city and its satellite towns. Around 6 crore sqft inventory with 35,000 housing units is lying unsold within the city limits, the report added.

The size of each flat in the MMR is 1,100 sqft, while that in the city limits is 1,600 sqft.

“It will take at least 40 months to sell this unsold stock in Mumbai, and that too if there are no new projects. But launches are happening frequently. This means the inventory will pile up further,” said Pankaj Kapoor, managing director of Liases Foras.
“In a healthy market, the inventory should be cleared within eight months. But the number of unsold flats in the city is rising every year. The housing stock is not drying up as it was projected in one-and-a-half year back,” he added.

In 2010-11, 2.66 crore sqft residential stock was lying unsold within the city limits, and 8.17 crore sqft in the MMR. Still, developers launched more than 100 housing projects in the city last year.

But the realty scene is not so grim in other cities.

Last year, while only 96 lakh sqft residential space was sold in city —at 3% — Pune registered 28% sales and Chennai 37% sales.
“Pune is selling more residential flats compared with Mumbai. It’s real estate is an end-user driven market, which is a healthy and good sign,” said Kapoor, adding that the realty market in Mumbai is unproductive.

“It is not beneficial to anyone except investors. Developers will face severe fund crunch; banks will be reluctant to offer loans and people will not afford to buy their dream house,” he added.
Anand Gupta, treasurer of the Builder Association of India, said there is huge gap between the demand and supply.

“There are many people who cannot afford to buy their dream home. And, then there are investors who buy more than one flat because they get good appreciation. Because of faulty law, they do not give the flats on rent and hence, the unsold inventory percentage is so high,” he said.

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Plan to increase Mangroves around Mumbai

The Mumbai region – including Mumbai, Thane and parts of Raigad – can look forward to a substantial increase in the amount of mangroves if a proposal by the state forest department sees the light of day. The forest department is proposing a conservation project that promises to double the amount of mangroves across six districts in the state over a decade. Three of these districts-Mumbai , suburban Mumbai and Thane-fall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), while parts of Raigad are also part of the MMR.

Forest officials said mangrove regeneration would be conducted in Mumbai in the Gorai region, while Navi Mumbai would see similar projects in Vashi, Koparkhairne and Ghansoli. Other regeneration plans would be in Vasai, Diva and Mumbra in Thane district . Mangroves are important buffers between land and sea, checking coastal erosion and helping flood control.

The overall plan of the forest department seeks to double the state’s 186 sq km (18,600 hectares) of mangrove cover in a decade. This cover is spread along the state’s coast in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts and the four districts in and around Mumbai.
The state government’s mangrove cell expects to double the amount of mangroves by nurturing mudflats. “We are taking the help of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. A major aim would be to revive mangroves in areas where they earlier existed ,” said Praveen Pardeshi, secretary of the state forest department.

Mangroves along palm beach Road, Navi Mumbai

The planners said the project would focus on mudflats along the coast that don’t have mangroves, but can support them. This would include areas where mangroves were earlier destroyed. “With minimal intervention from our side we can facilitate the inflow of water , and many of these mudflats, which harbored mangroves in the past, can be restored to their original state. Coupled with such a revival, we would also plant fresh mangroves,” said N Vasudevan , chief conservator of forests and head of the mangrove cell.

Till recently, the forest department played practically no role in mangrove conservation, but a landmark order from the Bombay High Court in 2005 changed this. The mangrove revival plan is an offshoot of this order. The judgment mandated that mangroves on government land be declared as ‘protected forests’ and those on private lands as ‘forests’ . As part of this process, 5,469 hectares (54.69 sq km) of mangroves have been already notified as protected forests. Most of the mangroves in Mumbai and Thane districts have been notified, said an official in the environment department.
This would lead to about 250 sq km of land, lining 720 km of coast, coming directly or indirectly under the forest department. An examination of mudflats is being carried out to see which areas qualify for regeneration . Once more areas are notified, more mudflats would be available .

“Mangroves on government land are being handed over to the forest department as compact parcels, with large stretches of mudflats in the area,” said Vasudevan. He added, “It does not mean that all mudflats originally had mangroves . We have to first identify those mudflats that did and start the revival there. We are being very careful not to replace one eco-system with another.”
Environmentalist Debi Goenka said that instead of regenerating mangroves on mudflats, the state should revive them where illegal reclamation has been done. “The new Coastal Regulation Zone rules show mudflats as having separate CRZ-1 status. Mudflats and mangroves have different eco-systems . The state should first stop destruction of existing mangroves,” he said.
Hugging the coast

The State of Forests Report (2011), published in January 2012 by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), assesses the state\’s mangrove cover as 186 sq km, including mangroves standing on private as well as public land.

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