MHADA slashes prices of some units under ongoing lottery, extends registration deadline

An unit priced Rs 38 lakh will now be available for Rs 29 lakh, according to MHADA

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has announced that prices of 370 of the 2,030 houses listed in the ongoing lottery process for Mumbai will be reduced by 10 to 25 percent. Further, the authority has also announced that it is extending the deadline to register for the lottery to September 19.

MHADA, Maharashtra's nodal agency for the supply of affordable housing, conducts lotteries for housing stock through its regional boards, such as for Mumbai, Konkan, Pune, and others. The application process for the ongoing lottery in the Mumbai board was scheduled to close on September 4.

At an event held on August 28 to launch MHADA's mascot, the authority's vice-president and CEO Sanjeev Jaiswal said that the 370 houses, whose prices will be slashed, were obtained from the redevelopment of MHADA layouts, as well as those from the redevelopment of old and dilapidated buildings, known as "cess" buildings, primarily located in Mumbai's island city. Other sources for houses under the MHADA lottery include buildings constructed by the authority itself.

Of the 370 homes, 226 are classified for the economically weaker section and low-income group applicants, the prices for which will be reduced by 25 percent for the economically weaker section homes, and 20 percent for the low-income group homes. Prices of the 118 homes under the middle-income group category will be reduced by 15 percent, while the 24 high-income group units will be cheaper by 10 percent.

The costliest apartment in the lottery, located in Tardeo, earlier priced at more than Rs 7.5 crore, will now be priced at Rs 6.8 crore, while an unit in Vikhroli, earlier priced at around Rs 38 lakh, will now be available at around Rs 29 lakh. With the price reduction, Jaiswal added that MHADA is passing on a benefit of around Rs 100 crore to homebuyers.

When asked about the reasons behind reducing the prices, Maharashtra's Housing Minister Atul Save said, "We received representations from various quarters that prices for some of the units were high. It is not that the number of applications were any less as a result of the prices, and the lottery process has already received more than 20,000 applications."

Jaiswal also said that MHADA will bear the cost of maintenance charges for allottees who have received flats in housing societies where managing committees have been formed and have been levying maintenance charges, for the period between the formation of the management and the allotment of the flat.