Realtors look to redevelopment as land supply dries up in city

Mumbai: With limited availability of open land parcels in the city, major developers are now looking at venturing into the redevelopment space, say industry experts.

“Due to scarce availability of unoccupied land, growth in real estate, particularly in terms of fresh supply is largely dependent on redevelopment activities,” global property advisory DTZ India chief executive Anshul Jain told PTI.

“As a result, slum redevelopment schemes as well as redevelopment of old cessed-buildings are playing a key role in realty development in Mumbai,” he said.

Scarce availability has made land parcels expensive in the city, resulting in higher project cost, he said.

“However, in case of redevelopment and rehabilitation, land cost is much lower and provides better returns to both developers as well as investors,” Jain said.

There are over 20,000 housing societies, 17,000 cessed buildings and over 3,000 MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority) structures, which are waiting for redevelopment proposals.

Maharashtra, which is planning to prepare a master plan for the development of megapolis, has recently through an amendment to Section 33(7) of the DC Regulations of 1991, proposed to raise the floor space index (FSI) to 3 from the current 2.5, for redevelopment of cessed buildings.

DB Realty, Tata Housing, HDIL, Unitech, Godrej Properties, Kalpataru group, Omkar Realtors, Hiranandanis, Oberoi Realty, Hubtown, Kumar Urban Development, Vakratunda group and S Raheja are some of the players who are into redevelopment space now.  Source>>>