Affordable Housing Projects in Gurgaon: Is it worth investing?

In the days when the real estate market in NCR is almost virtually dead still mobile and email inbox are flooded with messages advertising sale of HUDA approved Affordable Housing projects in Gurgaon, Sohna and other cities of Haryana. 

One gets curious as what exactly is this HUDA Approved "Affordable Housing" and is it a good investment opportunity? All the political parties have emphasized and promised in their manifestos that they would provide housing to common people at affordable rates. Previous regime in the year proposed and launched "Affordable Housing Policy 2013" with the intent to provide housing to general public.

Salient Features of  Affordable Housing Policy 2013:

1. Government has proposed that it is open to grant licenses for development of Affordable Housing
1. upto 300 acres in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panchkula, Panchkula Extn, Pinjore-Kalka each
2. upto 150 acres in Sonipat, Panipat, Karnal, Dharuhera, Bahadurgarh & Sohna
3. upto 75 acres in rest of the Development Plans.

2. Pricings: Affordable Housing Policy 2013 has clearly mentioned that Developers will be able to deviate from the under mentioned prices.

	Development Plan	Maximum allotment rate on per sqft carpet area basis	Additional recovery against balcony of min 5ft clear projection
a.	Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panchkula, Pinjore-Kalka	Rs.4,000/- per sq. ft.	Rs 500 per sqft against all balcony area in a flat adding upto and limited to 100 sqft, as permitted in the approved building plans.
b.	Other High and Medium Potential Towns.	Rs.3,600/- per sq. ft.
c.	Low Potential Towns	Rs.3,000/- per sq. ft

3. Area of Township: Private developers are given licenses to develop Affordable Housing in the area not less than 5 acres and not more than 10 acres.

4.  Apartment Size: Apartment will be 1 Bed Room, Hall, Kitchen or 2 Bed Room, Hall, Kitchen. Developer while advertising its Affordable Housing project will have to specify the size of the apartment but it should be in the range 28sqm to 60sqm in size. Developer will not be able to change the apartment specifications once the project is advertised.

5.   Apartment Specifications:

1. Apartments will have pre-defined size and pre defined rates.
2. Apartments have to be sold on carpet area basis.
3. Only Two wheeler parking slot of 0.8 m *2.5 m are allowed and no car parkings are allowed.
4. It is mandatory for the township to have a Community Hall & Anganwadi-cum-Crèche of area not less than 2000 sqft each.

6. Time Frame for construction: All the projects which are given licenses under this Affordable Housing Policy 2013 will have to complete the launch & construction of the projects with the stipulated time frame of 4 years of getting the approval of building plans or grant of environmental clearance, whichever is later. This date shall be referred to as the date of "commencement of project". The licenses shall not be renewed or extended beyond the said 4 years period from the date of commencement of project.

7. Allotment: Once the developer gets all the clearances he will have to allot 95% of the total apartment in one go for which  developer will have to follow the rules laid down in Affordable Housing Policy 2013. Draw of these 95% apartment will be done in open under the committee      comprising of various senior government officials. Remaining 5% of the total number of flats as approved in the building plans may be allotted by a licensee to its employees/ associates/ friends/ relatives etc. subject to the disclosure of their name/address and other identification details to the allotment committee.

8. Eligibility: Any person can apply but person which includes his/her spouse or his/her dependent children who do not own any flat/plot in any HUDA developed colony/ sector or any licenced colony in any of the Urban Areas in Haryana, UT of Chandigarh and NCT Delhi shall be given first preference in allotment of flats. An applicant in a specific colony shall make only one application. Any successful applicant under this policy shall not be eligible for allotment of any other flat under this policy in any other colony. In case, he/she is successful in more than one colony, he/she will have choice of retain only one flat. All such applicants shall submit an affidavit to this effect.

9. Resale & Transfer of Apartment: To curb any artificial price hikes and speculations this Affordable Housing Policy 2013 has inculcated important checks like, the apartment can be sold or transferred only after one year of possession of the apartment. If developer of any individual still indulges in any sale through Transfer, GPA etc they shall be liable for penalty equivalent to 200% of the selling price of the apartment.

Details of the Projects in Gurgaon and Sohna to whom the licenses have been issued.

Developer Name	Area (acre)	Dev. Plan	Sector	Colony Name	Valid Upto/ Renewed Upto
AVL Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.	4.07	Gurgaon	36A	AVL INFRA GUR-36A	31-07-19
AVL Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.	5	Gurgaon	36A	AVL INFRA GUR-36A	09-06-19
Sunrays Heights Pvt. Ltd.	5.9	Gurgaon	63A	SUNRAYS (BADERWAL) GUR-63A	07-08-19
Premium Infratech Pvt. Ltd.	5.07	Gurgaon	69-70	PREMIUM GUR-69-70	24-08-19
Pyramid Infratech Pvt. Ltd.	9.88	Gurgaon	70A	PYRAMID GUR-70A	19-08-19
Sarvpriya Securities Pvt. Ltd.	6	Gurgaon	71	SARVPRIYA GUR-71	27-08-19
Revital Reality Pvt. Ltd.	5.08	Gurgaon	79, 79B	REVITAL GUR-79, 79B	11-09-19
Revital Reality Pvt. Ltd.	7.03	Gurgaon	79B	REVITAL GUR-79B	11-09-19
Manira Developers Pvt. Ltd.	5	Gurgaon	81	MANIRA GUR-81	06-07-19
Pivotal Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.	5.17	Gurgaon	84	PIVOTAL GUR-84	09-06-19
Pyramid Infratech Pvt. Ltd.	5.29	Gurgaon	86	PYRAMID GUR-86	08-09-19
Alton Buildtech India Pvt. Ltd.	5.56	Gurgaon	88A, 89A	ALTON GUR-88A-89A-	07-08-19
Aster Infrahome Pvt. Ltd.	5.01	Gurgaon	90	ASTER GUR-90	06-07-19
Aster Infrahome Pvt. Ltd.	5.01	Gurgaon	90	ASTER GUR-90	06-07-19
Ramsons Organics Pvt. Ltd.	5.6	Gurgaon	95	RAMSONS GUR-95	25-08-19
Pivotal Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.	6.19	Gurgaon	99	PIVOTAL GUR-99	08-08-19
Pareena Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.	5	Gurgaon	99A	PAREENA GUR-99A	13-08-19
Prime Infradevelopers Pvt. Ltd.	5.96	Gurgaon	99A	PRIME INFRA GUR-99A	10-06-19
Nani Resorts & Floriculture Pvt. Ltd.	5	Gurgaon	102	NANI GUR-102	09-06-19
JMK Holding Pvt. Ltd.	9	Gurgaon	103	JMK GUR-103	10-09-19
Perfect Buildwell Pvt. Ltd.	5	Gurgaon	104	PERFECT GUR-104	09-06-19
Signature Builders Pvt. Ltd.	1.13	Gurgaon	107	SIGNATURE GUR-107	22-08-19
Signature Builders Pvt. Ltd.	5	Gurgaon	107	SIGNATURE GUR-107	17-06-19
Shyam Kirpa Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.	5	Gurgaon	109	SHYAM GUR-109	03-09-19
Lotus Realtech Pvt. Ltd.	5.09	Gurgaon	111	LOTUS GUR-111	17-06-19
GLS Infratech Pvt. Ltd.	10	Sohna	4	GLS SOH-4	13-08-19
MVN Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.	6.5	Sohna	5	MVN SOH-5	17-06-19
Arete India Projects Pvt. Ltd.	6.01	Sohna	6	ARETE SOH-6	01-08-19
VK Motors Pvt. Ltd.	5.41	Sohna	11	VK MOTORS SOH-11	10-06-19
Raheja Developers Ltd.	10	Sohna	14	RAHEJA SOH-14	19-08-19
AAR Housing Pvt. Ltd.	5	Sohna	31	AAR SOH-31	16-07-19
Breeze Builders & Developers Pvt. Ltd.	9.95	Sohna	33	BREEZE SOH-33	15-07-19
Tulsiani Construction & Developers Ltd.	5	Sohna	35	TULSIANI SOH-35	24-07-19
Randhawa Construction Pvt. Ltd.	6.85	Sohna	2 & 35	RANDHAWA SOH-2 & 35	09-06-19

Is Affordable Housing a good investment option?

For those who missed DDA housing opportunity may find this a feasible option to meet their need of dwelling in NCR but one must understand that Gurgaon and has many concerns like:

1.   In the areas of Public transport, security, schools etc which Gurgaon lags behind Delhi.

2.   Affordable Housing projects spreads almost all of new Gurgaon & Sohna  ranging from Sector-70 till Sector-103 in Gurgaon and Sector-2 till Sector-35 in Sohna.

3.   Development in and around these Sector may some time as we are already witnessing slump in Real Estate.

4.   There is restriction in sales therefore it might not turn out to be hot selling proposition.

5.   Eligibility criteria are very tough to comply with which will keep the investors away.

Our Recommendation: Not every Sector where this Affordable Housing projects are launched or about to be launched hold good future. One will have to pick and choose the Affordable Housing projects after analyzing the location and developer. We therefore recommend our readers that apartments under the Affordable Housing Policy 2013 are good for those who are not able to buy any property in Gurgaon and it will be good investment option for those who can show patience and can wait till overall development of the Sectors is completed.

The author can be reached at 9899740003 or pankaj@easyghar.com for discussion and further clarification.

Author manages a leading real estate portal www.easyghar.com