Only a few big brands and certain mid-sized developers want to market their projects as affordable housing, as high land cost remains a challenge for developers. The government in its 2017 Budget accorded industry status to affordable housing and tweaked apartment size criterion to qualify for/as low-cost housing. Earlier, affordable housing was calculated on the basis of built-up area, while it will now be based on carpet area. Hiranandani Group, too, has ventured into affordable housing under the banner Hiranandani Communities. A month ago, Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI) had announced the launch of 352 affordable housing projects across India.

Source: dna May 08, 2017 01:41 UTC