Mhada lottery shows demand high, supply low

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) has received around 1.35-lakh applications for its 972 homes that are being sold via a lottery system in Mumbai. This means the demand ratio would be around 135 to 140 buyers applying for one unit.

The demand ratio also indicates that there is a huge demand for affordable homes; however, the supply is a bit low. “The demand supply ratio means that the challenge would be greater next year and it is going to be tough for Mhada to come out with more than 1,000 units next year in the city as we do not have much available here,” said a Mhada official on condition of anonymity.

The state economic survey of 2015-16 had revealed that Mhada constructed a mere 772 units in 2015-16 (up to December 2015), which is its worst performance in the past five years. Since the inception of Mhada in 1977, it has constructed around 4.5 lakh units in the state.

The homes that are being sold under the lottery are available in areas such as Borivali, Goregaon, Sion, Andheri, Malad, Chembur and Mankhurd. The units measure depending on the category under which the homes are available.

The registrations for the Mumbai Board lottery were carried out online and the winners of the Mhada lottery will be declared on August 10, 2016. The lottery has around 135 higher income group (HIG) units, 228 middle income group (MIG) units, 416 lower income group (LIG) units and 190 economical weaker section (EWS) units.

Meanwhile, there could be a delay in the possession of the homes that are being sold out in the lottery as around 582 homes out of the total 972 units are under construction and have only got commencement certificates (CC) and are yet to get occupation certificates (OC). According to Mhada, the possession of the homes will take at least two years.