Mhada’s home run: 950 flats in Powai and Virar

The houses at Powai will have an area of more than 500sqft and will be priced at ₹60 lakh-₹70 lakh. The homes in Virar will have an area of 425sqft and will be sold for ₹15 lakh-₹20 lakh.

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) is all set to build 950 affordable houses in Powai and Virar.

Mhada houses are in great demand as they cost less compared to private builders and have clear land titles. Image used for representational purposes only. (Pramod Thakur/HT Photo)

The houses at Powai will have an area of more than 500sqft and will be priced at ₹60 lakh-₹70 lakh. The homes in Virar will have an area of 425sqft and will be sold for ₹15 lakh-₹20 lakh.

Mhada president Uday Sawant said the proposal was passed at a meeting on Tuesday. “We will construct 450 houses in Powai and 500 houses in Virar as part of our affordable housing project,” said Sawant. “The houses will be sold through the lottery system. We have reduced the prices significantly as we want more people to get them at low prices.”

Earlier, Mhada houses at Powai were priced at more than ₹1 crore, while houses in Virar were priced above ₹18 lakh.

Mhada houses are in great demand as they cost less compared to private builders and have clear land titles. Moreover, the quality of Mhada houses has improved over the past few years.

Currently, private builders are facing a huge slowdown and are unable to sell their houses as their inputs costs are very high. One of the main issues is the value of land, which is a huge burden for private builders. In contrast, Mhada, being a government agency, has its own land and hence can be flexible in cutting prices.

However, Mhada hardly has vacant land left to construct affordable houses. It is currently working on exploiting its current colonies to create a stock.