During the heady days of the real estate sector, it was not uncommon to hear of “by invitation only” kind of projects for premium housing segments. To cash in on what is being considered as the revival of the housing sector, Mumbai-based real estate developer Shivom Group announced the launch of Shiv Aum Gardens, a ‘by reference‘ project at Karjat, at the far end of central suburbs of Mumbai.

What is referred to as “by reference” project is quite simple really: if a customer buys a house and brings another buyer, he gets financial benefits. “Potential customers with the ‘by reference’ approach will be given preference and would earn several benefits like free stamp duty, free modular kitchen or free lifetime club membership,” said a media release from the company.

Shiv Aum Gardens has 600 residential units with amenities like club, swimming pool, garden and a jogging track thrown in. The apartments are priced at Rs 9 lakh for a one-bedroom house and Rs 12 lakh for a two bed room house. The cost works out Rs 1,500 per sq ft, which is slightly higher than the Tanaji Malusare city project in Karjat, which sold flats at Rs 999 a sq ft.

“Our project is priced higher because we give many amenities,” Amardeep Gambhir, managing director, Shivom Group told FC Estate. “Our project is located within 1.5 kms distance from Karjat station,” he added. “The shift in the real estate sector today is clearly towards ‘affordable housing’ and our attempt is to deliver homes with spacious interiors and good amenities at an affordable rate. With our ‘customised affordable housing’ projects, our attempt will be to offer homes primarily to those who have a limited budget,” he added.

While developers are continuing to launch projects and branding them as affordable, the question raised by Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC still remains unanswered. He called the concept of 'affordable hou­sing' a 'misnomer'. “Affordable housing is not about box-sized, budget homes in far-flung places where there is no connectivity to work places and little surrounding infrastructure. Affordable housing has to cut across all income segments and has to make economic sense in terms of proximity to the work place. The agenda for affordable housing requires a combined public private collaboration and a strong political will to enforce change,” said Parekh in HDFC's recent annual report.

The recent launch of both Shiv Aum Gardens and Tanaji Malusare City fall in line with Parekh's description of affordable housing projects. Both are located in Karjat, which is a good one-and-a-half to two-hour journey from South Mumbai. These are small ap-artments ranging between 300 sq ft to 850 sq ft sizes. “While these sizes are

inconceivable to be called homes in other cities, people in Mumbai do live in such small homes,” said a Mumbai-based broker.

These projects have seen good response. Tanaji Malusare City had to allot homes via a lottery system. Shiv Aum Gardens has already sold 1 lakh sq ft so far.

(The writer is a freelancer)