Affordable housing still a dream in Gurugram

Gurugram: Gurugram may boast of residential societies that command highest prices in the country but in a city where the population is 25 lakhs and growing, affordable housing is still a dream. Besides central schemes, the state government is also committed to make affordable housing a reality in the city.

To address the challenge the government had brought number of schemes but it has still not worked out. Among the schemes was to make a housing society on lines of DDA where 25,000 units of flats were to be delivered in places of Sohna, Manesar and Gurugram. However, this plan is still in the works.

Another initiative of the government that has still not worked out is the plan for reasonable community housing. An area of 190 acres was earmarked by the government where 33 residential colonies were to be setup. The residential units in these colonies was planned to be sold at Rs 4,400 per square feet.

However, there have been no real estate players that have participated in this project of the government. The Haryana Real estate regulatory act has also not been able to kick- off in the city because of challenges. Unhappy with the provisions many citizen bodies are also mulling of taking a legal recourse.

On their part the government has claimed that through digitisation of the processes, it has been able to bring in more transparency for the homebuyer. In less than eight months the Haryana government will again be changing the circle rates in Gurugram.

The new collector rates will be implemented from January 1 next year. With the property market in Gurugram facing a slump, a reduction of three percent is expected in old Gurugram area.

With each area in the city having different circle rates, the district administration plans to reduce the circle rates in the area where there can be maximum opportunity for sales of property. In May this year, there was a reduction of 5 percent in the circle rates.

In 2016-17 also the district administration reduced the circle rates in the city by almost 15 percent in the city to boost realty sales in the city. However, various factors like demonetisation and poor financial condition of the builders resulted in the sales not picking up completely.