Mahindra enters affordable housing with 2 projects

Auto-infotech conglomerate Mahindra Group, has entered affordable housing through its property development arm Mahindra Lifespaces (MLDL). Through the newly created business vertical Happinest, MLDL will launch two such housing projects in Boisar near Mumbai and Avadi in Chennai. The two projects will have 2200 apartments and a total of one million sq ft. The apartments, priced below Rs 20 lakh, will be launched in the next two months.

The projects, targeted at families with monthly income of Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000, will be built in phases. While the first phase will be completed in12 months, the entire projects will be completed in two years.

The company’s foray into affordable housing coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus on home for all within 75 years of India’s independence or by 2022.

The company has tied up with credit scoring agencies such as Inventure and mico housing companies such as Mahindra Finance, Muthoot, MFHC and HFFC for housing finance for its customers.

Companies such as Tata Housing, Usha Martin and Jerry Rao’s Value and Budget Housing have launched affordable housing projects in the past but the category as a whole had not been a favourite with top realty developers due to lower margins in the segment, consultants said.

“By 2030, about 600 million people will live in urban centres and 70 per cent of the new jobs will be created in cities. To meet the demand, you need a new Chicago every year.  It sounds very daunting but it is a $150 billion opportunity,” said Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra group.

“If I were in Delhi, I would be trying to see how policy can be streamlined to become reality through incentives, creation of templates and ecosystem,” Mahindra said.

On leveraging intra group synergies, he said the group would leverage synergies within group companies like IT and other skills.