Annual Mhada lottery may have no new houses, only old ones

Mumbai: Not even a single house offered by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) in its annual lottery for affordable homes this year is going to be in a newly constructed apartment, if we go by what Mhada has to offer.

The state housing authority has identified a mere 650 homes for this year’s lottery, for which all of them are in old apartments constructed five or 10 years ago.

Mhada is offering fewer homes this year because the housing authority has cited ‘no land availability to have new housing stock.’ This is also one of the reasons why the lottery conducted every year in the month of May has been delayed for the second year in a row.

Till now, for the 2017 lottery Mhada has a mere 650 homes to sell this year as compared to 972 homes in 2016 — a dip of almost 40 per cent. A Mhada official said, “The lottery hardly has any homes for the economically weaker section. Most available apartments are for the lower income group and middle-income group. There are possibilities we might not have homes for the higher income group this year.”

The official further added, “We are hunting to have respectable homes for the EWS category and hence are not announcing the lottery for now.” He said the number might increase from 650, but it is unlikely to be a substantial one.

While the government plans to have 19 lakh affordable homes by 2022, the lottery this year would see the lowest number in its history.

Additionally, Mhada claims that in the near future around 4,500 homes would be made available for the yearly lottery in Goregaon. It has also appointed contractors for constructing 1.10 lakh homes under PMAY.