Tatas advance low-cost housing target by 2 yrs

Tatas advance low-cost housing target by 2 yrs
Business Standard, June 10, 2009, Page 3

Raghavendra Kamath / Mumbai

Tata Housing, a unit of Tata Sons, is advancing its plans to build 15,000 low-cost dwelling units by two years. Besides, it should add 300 more houses in its Mumbai project to take the advantage of demand for such homes, a top company official said.

Tata Housing had earlier planned to develop 1,000 houses under the brand 'Shubh Griha' in Bhoisar, a distant suburb of Mumbai, priced at Rs 3.9-6.7 lakh. It is also bidding for nearly 15,000 such low-cost homes in Bangalore, the national capital region (NCR) and others in the next four years.

“We got a good response for our project in Bhoisar . We need to capture the first-mover advantage in the cities where we are planning to launch these projects lest there should be overcrowding, as many other developers are also planning to enter this segment,'' said Brotin Banerjee, MD and CEO, Tata Housing Development Company.

Within three weeks, the company sold 16,000 forms for 1,000 homes, of which 7,200 filled the forms and returned with an earnest deposit of Rs 10,000. For each apartment, 7.2 customers have shown interest.

Based on a lottery, the company will declare a first list and a waiting list within 15 days of the final booking. Winners are expected to be announced by June-end. The company is also planning to launch another low-cost project in the central suburbs of Mumbai.

“We will talk to governments and land-owners for early possession of the land and complete the projects quickly,” Banerjee said.

Tata Housing was targetting revenues of Rs 700 crore from low-cost housing in the next four years. “We will continue to do low-cost housing till the time we get land at low prices. The day we do not get it, we will stop. However, I do not see such a scenario in the next two-three years,'' Banerjee said.

The company is targetting Rs 100-150 crore revenue and an offer of 1,000-1,500 flats at each project. "Going forward, 50 per cent of our revenues in the housing segment will come from premium housing, 20 per cent from low-cost housing and the rest from affordable (mid-income projects),” he said.