North Mumbai has become the preferred choice for developers to undertake new housing projects. According to a recent survey done by PropEquity, a real estate data analytics and intelligence firm, the Andheri-Dahisar belt has seen major construction, with 55 per cent of the new supply of residential units coming up in this area in the first quarter of 2012.
Last year, this same figure (for the first quarter of 2012) stood at 22 per cent.
Paras Gundecha, president of Maharashtra Chambers of Housing and Industry and developer and founder of the Gundecha Group, said, “The land rates are increasing. Plus in other areas, there is either no space or it works out to be too expensive. So developers are choosing to focus on areas in North Mumbai, where there is still some space.”
Moreover, the size of newly-constructed homes in these areas has reduced too. “The average size of the units launched in the current quarter has reduced significantly to approximately 900 sq.ft.; last year, the average size per dwelling unit was slightly above 1,300 sq.ft.,” said Samir Jasuja, founder and CEO at PropEquity.
Confirming this, Mr Gundecha said there was no other way to keep the cost of property in check but to reduce the units in size. “The fact that there are so many hurdles in getting permissions and with the rising rates of materials, construction has shifted to places where land is relatively affordable,” he said.