GURGAON: Low-cost housing in Gurgaon might sound incongruous, given the sky-high prices of apartments but the Haryana government has baby-stepped towards the concept by launching a new affordable housing policy recently.

A senior state government official said that builders would be allowed to take up projects separately under the affordable housing scheme. “The developers can now plan affordable housing projects for which a separate licence will have to be issued. The houses constructed under the scheme will be sold at the rate decided under the scheme,” said the official.

Based on the categories, the state government has fixed maximum allotment rates. For instance in Gurgaon and Faridabad, the flats constructed under the scheme will be sold at Rs 4,000 per square foot. This means the tentative price of a one BHK flat would over Rs 20 lakh.

Commenting on the recent scheme, Navin Raheja, president of National Real Estate Development Council, said: “The affordable housing solution is the need of the hour and the state government’s move is in the right direction.”

Avoiding much fanfare, the state government had announced the new policy specifically catering to low-income group buyers in different districts and towns. According to the policy, the scheme covers three different categories of the development plans divided in two high and medium potential places, towns and low potential towns in different districts.

As per the new policy, the state government has set price tags (over Rs 3,000 per square foot) for the houses constructed under the new scheme. Hailing the move, real estate insiders claimed that affordable housing projects should be encouraged and even made compulsory.

“The scheme sounds good but unless there is stricter monitoring of the scheme at the ground level, it would be unsuccessful as an EWS scheme,” said a real estate analyst. Industry insiders also foresee lukewarm response from the builders to the new scheme. “The land cost has gone up so much that building small flats is unprofitable. The builders will not be much interested if the procedural fees are similar to those of normal housing projects,” said another real estate analyst.

In order to woo maximum number of builders, the state government has decided to exempt them from licence fees and infrastructure development charges (IDC). The projects undertaken in the new scheme by the builder would also be given extra floor area ratio (FAR).

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