Mumbai: As the deadline of registering for Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) lottery draws to a close, the authority has revealed that nearly 64,000 buyers have applied for 819 homes in this year’s lottery. The number of applications has substantially decreased as compared to last year, when 1.35 lakh applied for only 910 homes.
Experts have said that the lottery has failed to attract a substantial number of buyers this year due to its unequal reservations for homes in all the four income groups. Established to provide affordable housing to the weaker section, the MHADA has reserved only eight flats for the economically weaker section and 338 flats for the higher income group in this year’s lottery.
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However, the authority has claimed that hundreds of EWS houses are under construction. They said that the next year’s lottery may see a much higher number of flats reserved for EWS once the construction is completed.
A senior MHADA official, requesting anonymity, cited that the lowest number of economically weaker section houses and the timing of the lottery can be the reason behind the less number of applications. He said, “The number of EWS houses can be cited as a reason for the lack of response. Also, the lottery has been much delayed this year compared to previous years due to several reasons.”
Deadline extended
Despite extending the deadline by two days for registrations and applications, the total number of registrations has reached 61,000 and total number of applications is 64,000. However, out of these, only 37,049 have completed the final step of paying the deposit. After successfully applying for the lottery, the buyer has 24 hours to make the payment. Owing to bank holidays during Diwali, the authority has decided to accept registrations till October 23 and the date for making payments has been pushed from October 24 to 26. There are only eight EWS flats in this year’s MHADA lottery located at located at Pratiksha Nagar-Sion, Mankhurd Chandivali, Magathane-Borivali.
