Over 5,00,000 applications for just 5,020 DDA flats

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The pent up demand for houses is likely to make Delhi Development Authority scurry to print more forms than the 500,000 it has offered for the just 5,020 flats it is offering in it latest auction. On Wednesday, the first day for the sale of forms about one lakh people queued up to try their luck for the flats on offer. Interestingly, unlike the last time there are no prohibitions on the resale of the flats in DDA’s terms and conditions.

The slump in the real estate market has not dampened the demand for the flats from India’s largest public sector real estate developer. Just for perspective, the last time DDA sold flats in 2006, 198,000 forms were picked up. Going by Wednesday’s sales that number would be erased in the next couple of days. The last date for submitting the forms is 16 September. Neemo Dhar, Director, PR, DDA, said of the one lakh forms 15,000 were downloaded from the website on the very first day itself. Anticipating the rush DDA had printed more than five lakh brochures, but now is planning a second print run.

The demand for the flats spread over Delhi stems from the acute scarcity of middle class home stock in the country. The current shortage of housing stock is about 24 million all over India according to the urban development ministry, for a total homestead population of 198 million.

The DDA auction will therefore be just peanuts even for Delhi. The Master Plan for the year 2021 for Delhi estimates a housing shortage of 400,000 units, most of it in the low income categories. Delhi like all major metros attracts a huge migrant population every year. Planners feel that the agency despite its legislative backed control over all real estate in the capital has not build adequately to make a dent on the shortages. At present it has also got a regulatory role. The master plan plans to clip that role by setting up an autonomous Real Estate Management Regulatory Authority. DDA this time has priced the flats between Rs 7.5 lakh and Rs 77 lakhs. Prospective buyers will need to pay Rs 1.5 lakhs at the time of registration. DDA officials said the scrutiny of the forms would take three months before the draw of lots.