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The affordable housing in Haryana has been picking up like never before  :

It was in the year 2013 that the thought for the offering af-fordable housing in Haryana was conceived. And, after facing initial hiccups, the new segment has finally seen the light of the day. With various colonisers offering affordable housing in Gurgaon,Sohna, Plawal, Faridabad and several other parts of the state, the scheme is now gaining momentum. It is estimated that by 2020, almost one-third (34%) of India’s gigantic population is ex-pected to shift from rural areas and migrate to towns/cities, further enhancing demand for real estate and transforming India from a rural society to an urban/semi-urban one. While demand for housing has increased substantially over the years, supply in affordable housing/ low income group housing has not kept pace.

As per the 11th five-year plan (2007-2012), an estimated shortage of 26.53 million houses offers a big investment opportunity in affordable housing sector. It is expected that ur-ban housing shortage will in-crease in the near future due to continuous migration and rise in the nuclear families. With this evolved the concept of affordable housing, which is gaining prominence and is likely to emerge a key growth driver for the Indian housing construction industry.

It offers big business opportunity for developers and can also attain the goal of social inclusion. To meet this increasing demand, several developers are turning their focus to affordable homes. Various developers announced projects catering to this segment and are developing strategies to exploit potential demand. Pradeep Aggarwal, co-founder and chairman, Signature Global Group, says, “Dwarka Express-way which connects Gurgaon to Dwarka has a host of affordable options today. It is the third direct connection between Delhi and Gurgaon (after NH-8 and Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road), and many real estate projects have come up in this area. Sector -103 and adjoining areas are hot favourites for customers. Gur-gaon is well connected to Delhi via the Metro, NH- 8 and the Mehrauli Gurgaon Road.

Sectors 81 to 115 have been developed along its length, with particular sectors earmarked for residential projects and commercial re-tail hub projects and public util-ities. The area around Dwarka Expressway is being developed as a model modern city with strict adherence to the Gurgaon-Manesar Masterplan 2031.” As a country where a substantial portion of the population still lives in slum, schemes like Haryana Affordable Housing PPP model are most desired to ensure
we are able to realise ‘Housing for All’ as a vision at the earli-est,” said Navin Raheja, CMD, Raheja Developers Limited and Chairman, National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco). Lalit Aggarwal, co-founder and joint managing director, Sig-nature Global Group, says “Sec-tor 103, Dwarka Expressway, Gurgaon will enjoy an edge over others for middle income consumers because of the afford-ability, excellent infrastructure and connectivity. The area is in
close vicinity to airport, existence of expressways and high-ways, Metro connectivity is avail-able. Vast industrial and commercial hubs are already in place. Here the real estate players are adopting advanced construction technologies for faster execution of housing projects.” But, despite the schemes be-ing announced, many investors are still wondering how the developers are offering flats for such low cost. Clearing the air and apprehension, RK Arora, Chairman, Supertech Limited, says, Of late, developers have realised that the majority of demand comes from affordable housing and they cannot only sustain with highend projects.

By an increase in demand of the region, Gurgaon will emerge as a favourite hotspot for many de-velopers as well as investors, resulting in an overall growth of the economy.” Varun Sharma, MD, MVN Infrastructure, says, This is one realistically thought process which took real estate industry by a shock.

Now with affordable housing launched and big demand in masses, everyone realised that actual people living in the city are mostly who can af-ford a two bedroom house only. New York or San Francisco have only studio, one bedroom, and two bedroom apartments because people can’t afford to buy bigger. Why is that in India, we just want to cater to the up-per class. We need more initiatives like affordable housing in NCR.” As part of the new scheme, various developers are offering constructed affordable 1 and 2 BHK flats of 300-645 sq ft and two wheeler parking between a price band of Z 12-20 lakh.