Govt urged to release land for affordable housing

Govt urged to release land for affordable housing
The Hindu Business Line, January 9, 2010, Page 17

Mint Homes to complete first project by June.

R. Yegya Narayanan, Coimbatore

The Tamil Nadu Government should loosen its hold on the land bank held by it by inviting bids from builders to develop affordable housing for which there is a lot of pent up demand in Coimbatore, according to Mr Raj Natarajan, Chairman, Mint Homes, Houston, Texas, US.

He said the realty market in Coimbatore was looking up and expected the recovery here to be faster than in other markets.

In the Coimbatore he expects a ‘large growth' with projects‘competitively priced' in the price range of Rs 2,000-Rs 2,500/sq.ft. The size of apartments would range between 800 sq (2 bedroom) and 1,000 sq.ft (3 bedroom) and the cost of thesecould be around Rs 20-25 lakh. He was looking seriously at the affordable housing projects located 10-12 km away from the city centre.

Upmarket buyers

Mr Natarajan said for the upmarket customers, the apartments could be of a bigger size (1,000 sq ft for two bedroom and 1,300 sq ft for 3 bedroom) costing between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 40 lakh for which there was demand.

The luxury home market in the price range of Rs 3,500-6,000/sq.ft, with apartments costing about Rs 70 lakh, in Coimbatore was very small. People in major metros like Mumbai and Delhi are attracted by the climate and quality of life in Coimbatore, he said.

Mint Homes' first project of 136 apartments in Meena Estate area in the city will be completed by the middle of this year. The civil works would be completed by March and the landscaping would be done by June.

Mr Natarajan said his company has signed an agreement with Sri Renga Property Developers to take over its three projects under execution consisting of 144 villas and apartments and has planned to complete all of them in the course of this year.