Island City: Grim MHADA outlook

Cessed buildings may no longer have much to offer to home buyers

Although No. 33(7) of the new Development Control and Promotional Regulations (DCPR) on cessed buildings redevelopment projects will provide extra space to original tenants and increased incentives to the builder, it will reduce or bring down to zero the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s (MHADA) share in these projects, said an official.

What this means is that henceforth the housing authority will receive fewer or no houses in the island city, since all cessed buildings are located here. Concerned by this new regulation, MHADA has decided to approach Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, according to an insider. MHADA chairman Uday Samant said, “The surplus houses obtained from cessed redevelopment projects from the developer are sold in the affordable housing lottery scheme. If MHADA won’t get any houses from the surplus, then it will eventually affect people who dream of owning a house in Mumbai and especially in the island city. We will demand modifications to the regulation.”

Another official requesting confidentiality said, “Since there is no cap or restriction on the Floor Space Index (FSI), we will ask the government if, instead of permissible FSI 3, they can increase FSI in accordance with increase in rehab carpet area component, simultaneously giving more incentive to the builder, which will then yield the surplus houses which MHADA can obtain.”

This year MHADA is offering 1,384 houses from the Mumbai Board in its lottery, for which applications can be made until December 10. Of these houses, 50 are from cessed building redevelopment projects, which are being offered in the higher income group category and three of these are in the Rs 4.99 crore - 5.80 crore price range.