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CHB’s costliest housing scheme in Sec 53 gets thumbs down
After a poor response, prices of the flats were slashed to woo buyers, but even after 4 months only 178 applications were received for 492 flats
Chandigarh Housing Board’s costliest housing scheme in Sector 53 has failed to attract buyers. Only 178 applications were received for the 492 apartments in response to the board’s demand survey despite it being open to public for four months. The last date for application was on Sunday.
Yashpal Garg, CEO of CHB, said they will take a final call on the scheme in their board of directors meeting to be held next month. However, sources in the department disclosed that the scheme may be scrapped due to the repeated poor response.
A senior official, not wished to be quoted, said, the flats did not get a good response because they are priced on the higher side .
Floated on October 25, the scheme had multiple space choices. The 3 BHK flats were priced at ₹1.8 crore, the 2 BHK at ₹1.47 crore, the 1 BHK at ₹95 lakh and the EWS flats were priced at ₹50 lakh.
Initially, application for the scheme were invited over a time limit of one month, but a poor response led the board to extend the deadline as well as to slash the rates. The price of 3 BHK flats was slashed to ₹1.63 crore in November and then to ₹1.5 crore in January. In case of 2 BHK flats, CHB cut prices from ₹1.28 crore in two attempts, and revisions were made in other categories, too.
However, nothing seemed to have worked the magic.
Sunil Kumar, general secretary of Chandigarh property consultant association, said that the rates of CHB flats were not realistic despite the revision. “When 3 BHK flats are available on resale at ₹1.1 to 1.2 crore in much better locations, why would people pay more in the new housing scheme?” he asked. If the board wished to sell its flats, he said they must bring down prices even further, or there is no scope for them.
Sources said that in the CHB board of directors meeting, board members will ask the board to bring down prices as per market rates, or scrap the scheme. But the board is not in a position to slash rates further, a CHB official said, as the UT has given them the land at the market rate, which has led to inflated cost of the flats. “In last revision, we even decides to forgo profits to keep prices low. There is no further scope to bring prices down,” he said.
Prem Kaushik, a board member, said he would urge officials to make prices affordable or scrap the scheme. Other members of the board put the onus on CHB officials for getting land at higher cost from UT administration.
In the previous housing scheme, launched in Sector 51 in 2016, which comprised only 2-BHK flats, the units were offered at just ₹70 lakh, far cheaper than the ₹1.5-crore price tag for the same flat in Sector 53.
