Mumbai apartments have become smaller
Greater Mumbai has seen a significant fall in the average sizes of residential apartments in the last couple of years. A study conducted by a real estate consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle India has found that in 2008, apartment sizes in Greater Mumbai were, on average, 20 per cent larger than those observed at a pan-India level. The median size of apartments across the country at that time was close to 1,600 square feet. While this number continues to remain more or less the same in most other cities, unit sizes in Mumbai have drastically reduced and are currently 15 per cent lower than the national median size.
The study has found that Thane and Navi Mumbai, which along with Mumbai form the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), too witnessed a fall in apartment sizes, although to a limited extent comparatively to the last five years. This is a fall of approximately 31 per cent from 2008. NCR in the same time frame saw a drop of 14 per cent in apartment sizes, while Pune saw an increase in apartment sizes by 23 per cent. Thane and Navi Mumbai witnessed apartment size reduction of 17 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.
The study further says that the fall in apartment sizes in Thane and Navi Mumbai has been less severe as compared to Mu-mbai residential real esta-te market. Prediction of a recession also alerted the builders. As per JLL Real Estate Intelligence Servic-es data, 2005-07 saw an astronomic rise of 110 per cent in residential property prices across the MMR.
“With Mumbai already being the costliest city in India, such steep escalations in capital values definitely challenged affordability. At the same time, the more reasonable prices in Thane and Navi Mumbai did not present such hurdles. It appears that developers perceived the need to reduce apartment sizes to maintain a comfortable level of affordability,” said Ramesh Nair, COO-Business, India, Jones Lang LaSalle.
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