DDA makes new attempt to sell 18k+ returned flats

A majority of the 18,335 flats (nearly 11,500) are earmarked for lower-income groups (LIG), and 205 flats up for sale are in the high-income group (HIG) category, located in Vasant Kunj and Jasola.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Thursday launched a housing scheme to sell over 18,000 flats that were returned by allottees of previous such programmes, a bulk of which are located in outer Delhi’s Narela.

Flats are also available in Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Rohini, Siraspur, Lok Nayak Puram, Shivani Marg, and applications will stay open till January 7 next year. (HT File Photo | Representational Image)

A majority of the 18,335 flats (nearly 11,500) are earmarked for lower-income groups (LIG), and 205 flats up for sale are in the high-income group (HIG) category, located in Vasant Kunj and Jasola.

Flats are also available in Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Rohini, Siraspur, Lok Nayak Puram, Shivani Marg, and applications will stay open till January 7 next year.

A senior DDA official said, “A majority of these flats were returned by allottees of past housing schemes. We recently got the approval to put these flats on sale in a meeting chaired by the Delhi Lieutenant Governor [Anil Baijal]. A large number of the flats are located in Narela where we have made efforts to improve infrastructure, including transport connectivity. A Metro corridor has been planned, to connect the area with the rest of the city.”

The Delhi Metro will build a Metrolite corridor between Rithala, Bawana and Narela, the land-owing agency has previously said.

To ensure a good response to its scheme, DDA is offering the flats at old rates, said a senior official.

In January 2021, DDA launched a scheme for 1,354 houses, including new HIG and MIG flats.

Last year, DDA put on sale 252 HIG flats in Jasola, Dwarka and Rohini. In Jasola alone, 215 newly constructed HIG flats, priced between ₹1.97 crore and 2.14 crore, were put on sale for the first time. But over 180 of these have been returned.

In Dwarka, allottees returned 478 of 700 MIG flats that were put on sale earlier this year.

Of the 11,452 LIG flats on sale in the latest housing programme, 8,295 are in Narela.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Union minister of state for housing and urban affairs Kaushal Kishore said 79% of DDA flats returned since 2014 are located in Narela. He said 56,932 flats have been put on sale since 2014, of which 15,500 have been returned.

The landowning agency has been struggling to sell its flats since 2014, when it put close to 25,000 flats, mostly LIG, on sale. Close to 12,000 flats, mostly in Narela and Rohini, were returned by allottees citing small size of bedrooms, lack of connectivity to the housing complexes etc. Since then, DDA has been trying to clear its inventory.