A middle-class housing boom helps the sector ride the slowdown
It is a building boom of unprecedented proportions for real estate developer Ansal Properties. In Gurgaon, the fast-growing township outside Delhi, Ansal Properties is building more than 1,500 new apartments that will all be sold for between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.
But the current boom is different from anything in the past and Ansal Properties chairman Sushil Ansal is the first to admit it. This one, he says, is fuelled entirely by middle-class money and it has changed the industry beyond recognition.
It is a view echoed by Surendra Hiranandani, managing director, Hiranandani Construction, which is building new projects in Mumbai suburbs like Thane and Powai.
In a shift from the past, over 80 per cent of the apartments being built by the Hiranandani
