FACILITIES FOR THE OLD AND YOUNG
Currently, developers are focused on marketing their projects to families with children. “What about senior citizens?” asks 61-year-old Ganesh Vikasan, a retired chartered accountant and Vile Parle resident. “Now that I’m retired, I would love to be able to pursue new hobbies within the complex. Developers could build facilities for art and music accessible to seniors.”
For Mohini Kumar, a 36-yearold homemaker, the sports facilities need urgent improvement. “Developers must understand that an indoor clubhouse and gymnasium or swimming pool cannot be the only recreational avenues. They should build open-air courts for sports such as basketball, tennis, cricket and badminton, so that children are not engaged indoors all of the time,” says the Thane resident. model, where the state releases land and provides raw material at subsidised rates to private developers. This will also help create affordable housing, and the government could work towards achieving its Housing for All goal by 2022.”
Kishore Bhatija, managing director, real-estate development, K Raheja Corp, adds that the year 2016 is the time to watch out for the Housing for All policy. “I hope the New Year will provide suitable housing for every budget. Also, I hope to see the much debated GST (goods and service tax) to bring in uniform taxation and eliminate the current multiple tax structure.”
Kapoor says, “On the land it owns, the government should take up the task of providing social or affordable housing by inviting tenders from contractors for construction. It shouldn’t auction the land to builders.”
According to Chintan Sheth, director of construction group Sheth Corp, “The year 2016 must witness FDI in real estate so as to ensure greater foreign capital inflows. This may accelerate the government’s ambitious Housing For All By 2022 and Construction of 100 Smart Cities projects. five years ago, and still haven’t got possession — at the time, I was told it would be ready in three years,” says Hrushikesh Sonsurkar, 34, who works as a manager in an international BPO in Malad (West).