Tall buildings, taller claims

Those who can, buy apartments in Delhi. The rest of us head east. To Ghaziabad and Noida we go, in search of affordable housing, and seem spoilt for choice with hundreds of apartments erected by private builders studding the skyline of the two satellite towns.

Those who can, buy apartments in Delhi. The rest of us head east.

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To Ghaziabad and Noida we go, in search of affordable housing, and seem spoilt for choice with hundreds of apartments erected by private builders studding the skyline of the two satellite towns.

But there is a sour taste to the eastern buffet.

All too often, buyers have found out within weeks of moving into homes, that there is many a slip between the brochure and the actual building. Facilities builders promised them while hard-selling the flats, simply do not exist.

“In most cases the promises are not kept. The claims for services mostly remain restricted to the catalogues,” says Ajay Sharma, a Resident Welfare Association member of HRC Professional Hub, a private apartment building in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad.

And the prices? By conservative estimates, the cost of a one-room apartment starts from Rs 14 lakh and that for a three bedroom flat can zoom beyond one crore rupees.

In absence of limited governmental control, accountability is hard to fix, even for a leaking tap or a jammed lift. Residents have complained of being intimated and beaten up for lodging complaints.