CHENNAI: Now you can buy a single-bedroom house for Rs 11 lakh in Chennai! Developers, who were usually targeting the buyers in the segment of Rs 25 lakh to Rs 75 lakh and above in Chennai, are now looking at building affordable homes in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 24 lakh.
The first to launch the affordable home project is Akshaya which is developing 442 units in two blocks called Vaan Megham and Mannvasanai at Thiruporur where for the first time home buyers in the city will be able to buy their nest for Rs 11 lakh.
Although these affordable homes are coming up on the outskirts of the city, T Chitty Babu, chairman and chief executive officer of Akshaya Pvt Ltd, is betting big on affordable homes. “We are getting into the segment for the first time,” he said, adding that the houses would be in the range of 465 square feet to 778 square feet.
“While the single bedroom-hall-kitchen (1BHK) home is priced at Rs 10.99 lakh, the 2BHK is priced at Rs 23.71 lakh,” said Babu.
This entire project is coming up across 48.22 acres of land parcel, which Akshaya bought more than seven to eight years ago. “This project will have lot of open space and will be more like our earlier projects,” he says and hopes to sell it during the three-day mela starting from Friday at YMCA on the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR).
On what makes the developers enter this affordable housing sector, Babu said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) for affordable housing is only one per cent besides subsidy is being given under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) for the first-time buyers.
S Sridharan, vice-president, Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), Chennai, said that lot of developers were looking at affordable housing within the Chennai Metropolitan Area limit itself. “This is because affordable housing has lots of concession, including tax benefits and relaxation in planning parametres,” he said.
A Shankar, Chief Operating Officer, Strategic Consulting, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), said affordable housing from private developers was the need of the hour, especially in a city like Chennai where most of the available affordable housing stock is in the price range of 30-40 lakh.
“There is a huge demand for units below Rs 20 lakh per unit. Currently the existing annual supply within Rs 30 lakh per unit by private developers through organised residential developments is catering to less than 10 per cent of the overall annual demand in that category. There is a huge opportunity for developers to provide housing at this budget at suitable locations in Chennai region,” said Shankar.
Many developers are coming forward with projects catering to this unmet demand. With the increased FSI as per new regulations and additional FSI for affordable housing, this is possible in suburban areas of Chennai with good connectivity by road and rail.