With a flurry of affordable housing projects in being launched in Ahmedabad, the industry feels the supply would soon exceed the demand. However, while the excess supply situation may remain so only in the short run, the gap maybe as wide as two times the demand, say industry players.
"In the recent past, too many real estate projects in affordable housing segment have been launched and more are on the anvil. However, it is the rate at which these projects are being announced that needs to be seen. In the short run, i.e. within a year or so, the supply maybe double than the demand," says Pankaj Shah, director of Synthesis Spacelinks Pvt. Ltd.
While real estate developer, Popular Estate Management, is also planning to build affordable residential properties in Vadaj area of Ahmedabad, city-based Bakeri Group is already offering affordable housing properties starting from Rs 7.5 lakhs to Rs 15 lakhs. Similarly, recently, non government organisation (NGO) Ashoka launched an affordable housing pilot project in Ahmedabad in association with Australia-based Community Housing Limited (CHL).
According to Rajesh Vaswani, executive director of Ahmedabad-based Venus Infrastructure & Developers Ltd., while the demand for affordable housing properties is around 25,000 in and around Ahmedabad, soon the supply could be around 50,000 units.
City-based real estate developers, Santosh Associates, has also launched its low cost housing project, Omshantinagar-2, in Ahmedabad. The Rs 70 crore worth project is part of a Rs 70 crore memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Santosh Associates during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit 2009 (VGGIS) for 2,000 low cost flats.
Priced at from Rs 3.5 lakhs onwards for 1BHK and Rs 5.25 lakhs onwards for 2BHK, the flats are sized at around 58 sq yard and 75 sq yard.
Meanwhile, the affordable housing project by Popular Estate Management will be set up on an area of two lakh sq. yards.