Poor response to Virar project

The response has been tepid even for houses for the lower-income group. For the 1,116 houses  that MHADA has advertised for sale, there have so far been only 3,611 applications. Of these, just 1,627 have confirmed their application by paying the deposit amount.

The houses in Virar (West), in MHADA’s under-construction township at Bolinj, are seen costly among those it has advertised for sale in this year’s lottery compared to the prevailing market price.

MHADA has priced the middle-income group flats at Rs 50.2 lakh or Rs 4,632 per square ft if calculated on the built-up area of 1,084 sq ft as specified in the advertisement. Likewise, the authority has priced the lower-income group houses at Rs 26.2 lakh, or Rs 3,957 per sq ft on the built-up area of 662 sq ft.

Boman Irani, chairman of Rustomjee Developers, said, “Private developers in Bolinj are offering a rate of around Rs 4,000 per square ft and this comes with amenities such as a club house, gym. It is possible to get 1BHK flat in Virar for Rs 25 lakh. In terms of pricing, people might not be seeing the MHADA project as attractive.”

Jayesh Vyas, former president, Association of Real Estate Agents,said “There is some over-supply in the market in Virar. There have been some deals of investor flats for similar or lower rates in the recent past,” Vyas said.
A MHADA spokesperson said, “We get a lot of applications in the last two days and expect better response in the coming week.”

manasi.phadke@expressindia.com