56 applicants for every MHADA home this year

MUMBAI: The response to the Mumbai housing lottery announced by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) this year is better than last year, with 56 applications received for every home as compared to last year’s 29 applications. The lottery draws for 2,030 homes in Mumbai will be conducted on October 8 at Yashwantrao Chavan Centre, Nariman Point.
A total of 1,34,350 applications were received out of which deposit was made towards 1,13,577 applications. It is only on payment of the earnest money that an application becomes eligible for the lottery. “The banks are still processing the deposit payment made and the numbers are gradually increasing. The final figure may marginally increase,” said a MHADA official.
Last year’s lottery draw, held for 4,082 tenements, attracted 1,20,144 applications. This year, the application process commenced on August 9 and the last date was moved to September 19 after a deadline revision. In the last 24 hours before the deadline, the housing authority received nearly 27,000 applications.
Given the last-minute rush, MHADA officials had to divert additional resources to manage their helpline desk. With more people logging on to the website, the lottery portal slowed down and challenges were faced in uploading documents.
This year’s lottery involves 2,030 tenements, of which 1,327 flats were constructed by MHADA’s Mumbai Board, 370 units received as housing stock from multiple developers under Development Control Regulations 33 (5), 33 (7) and 58, and 333 units were carried forward from previous year as either these did not receive any application or remained unsold for varied reasons.
In the income-wise categorisation, 359 flats are for the economically weaker section, 627 for low-income group, 768 for middle income group, and 276 apartments for the high-income group.
“We require a minimum of 15 days to process the back-end for scrutiny, publish the final eligible applicant list, and do a dry run of the lottery software,” said a senior MHADA official.
In Navi Mumbai, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has plans for a housing draw for around 40,000 homes around Dussehra. The housing stock will come from prime areas of Vashi, Sanpada, Nerul, Juinagar, among others, and are ready to move in. Apart from this, another 27,000 homes are in different stages of construction.
Last month, CIDCO had announced a draw for 902 affordable homes. The prices of the homes are in the range of ₹26 lakh to over ₹2 crore. These homes are in the areas of Kalamboli, Kharghar, Ghansoli, etc.
Of the total 902 homes, 213 flats were in the developed nodes of Kalamboli, Kharghar and Ghansoli and 689 in CIDCO’s Valleyshilp, Swapnpurti and Vastuvihar-Celebration housing complexes at Kharghar. Lottery draw for these will be held on October 10.