DDA launches ₹5 crore duplex penthouses in Dwarka

These penthouses, which will be four-bedroom duplex apartments with a plinth area of 424 sqm, will come up in Dwarka Sector 19B

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), in an attempt to enter the luxury housing segment, is set to launch its first set of penthouses in Dwarka, the registration process for which will begin on November 30, officials aware of the matter said.

A sample Penthouse flat inside the newly constructed DDA flats at Sector 19B, Dwarka. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

These penthouses, which will be four-bedroom duplex apartments with a plinth area of 424 sqm, will come up in Dwarka Sector 19B — around 13km from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport — and will be ready to move in by December-end or January, the officials said.

These houses will come with a reserve price of ₹5 crore — the highest price at which DDA has launched any residential property in the city — and will be up for auction.

The penthouses will be part of what DDA is billing as a luxury society with 1,130 flats. (Sanchit Khanna/HT)

“These are our most premium flats so far, and we expect them to be booked quickly. We have already received several queries for them,” said DDA vice chairman Subhashish Panda.

The penthouses will be part of what DDA is billing as a luxury society with 1,130 flats — 14 penthouses, 170 Super HIG flats and 946 HIG flats. Officials said this society complex will have 11 towers facing the under-development 18-hole golf course in Dwarka, along with two car parking spaces.

The reserve price for the Super HIG flats will be around ₹2.5 crore, while that of HIG flats will be around ₹1.4 crore, officials said, adding that four additional towers are set to have 728 EWS flats.

The society is being built at a cost of ₹700 crore, the officials said.

DDA, the government land-owning agency, was formed in 1957 with a mandate to prepare a master plan for the national capital and to promote and secure the development of Delhi according to this plan. All its initial housing inventory was initially focused at providing rehabilitation to Partition refugees. It then increased its ambit to providing housing for the poor and growing middle-class that has continuously migrated to the city.

The penthouses will have terrace gardens, luxury sanitary fittings. (Sanchit Khanna/HT)

The agency is now expanding to enter the luxury housing market with its first such project.

“The biggest advantage of these flats is the location — they face the upcoming golf course, a Metro station is coming up in the sector, and close to the airport,” said a DDA official.

The penthouses will have terrace gardens, luxury sanitary fittings, and the society has several shop spaces and a larger-than-usual green space, surrounded by residential towers. DDA will also prepare a sample flat for buyers, officials said.

Another official said that unlike other DDA schemes, wherein flats are allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis, the penthouses in Dwarka will be allotted through an e-auction. This decision, he said, was taken after the authority consulted real estate experts regarding the pricing of the flats.

Harsh Vardhan Bansal, president of the Delhi chapter of the National Real Estate Development Council, said, “It is good that DDA has entered the luxury housing segment. Delhi needs condominiums like these as it has been a constant demand. However, we also feel that DDA, as an organisation, has a much bigger role and it should focus on planning. If DDA can start selling such housing plots to private developers, they can add better facilities like luxury clubs that would make these projects much more viable and lucrative for the buyers.”

Meanwhile Sanjeev Singh, a prospective buyer who visited the society on Wednesday, said, “These houses are good and really spacious and have a good location, but prices are definitely on the higher side. Cities like Gurugram and Noida have much better facilities in this price point.”

DDA has launched 54 housing schemes since 1967, when it started making housing units. However, officials admit that since 2014, these schemes have received a poor response, and during the last financial year, DDA announced losses amounting to over ₹18,000 crore, mostly due to an unsold inventory of around 40,000 flats, most of which are located in Narela.

The authority recently hired a private marketing agency to boost sales, and a real estate advisor to prepare a report on why it has not been able to sell its unsold inventory.