High land cost in the twin cities makes building ‘affordable housing’ project a tough proposition, yet the market demand is quite huge and builders can go for them by focusing on the suburbs as the Central government too has been giving subsidy under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scheme, said M. Obul Reddy, chairman and managing director of Honeyy Group.
Talking to presspersons on Monday, Mr. Reddy said the realty firm based in Visakhapatnam will be making its foray into the capital with its first project to kick off at Old Alwal. The next will be at Srinagar Colony and, soon, six other projects in and around the city will be taken up at a total investment of up to ₹20 crore in the next four years, with most of them being in the ‘affordable housing’ segment, he claimed.
Affordable range in the twin cities could start from ₹2,500-₹5,000 per sq.ft., but even that scale too is way beyond the reach of the middle and lower middle classes, he accepted, but builders could easily tap the demand by reducing the apartment sizes at about 1,000 sq.ft rather than building large sized ones, he observed.
“The Union Budget has given a 200% boost to builders like us looking at affordable housing sector. We are already building 1,000 flats project at Achyuthapuram in Visakhapatnam with 1,450-1,500 sq.ft. costing below ₹45 lakh,” he said. The firm is planning to deliver 250 flats across three lakh sq.ft. under 14 projects in the coastal city of Andhra Pradesh which has witnessed a “15-20%” price escalation with capital announcement.
New projects are planned at Rajamahendravaram, Kakinada, Warangal, Bubhaneshwar, Anakapalle, Tirupati and other places with an aim to touch ₹100 crore turnover, Mr. Reddy added.
