While housing for all has been discussed about a lot at various levels and it is showing some results, appropriate urban housing for EWS (Economically Weaker Section), LIG (Lower Income Group) and MIG (Middle Income Group) is still far from fulfilling the need. To make this distant dream a reality through a commercially viable solution, city start up ‘Khopa Technologies’ is attempting to integrate all the stake holders through technology and innovation.
A self sustainable model which brings all related elements on one platform to achieve desired results has been developed on the basis of a behavioural research of prospective home buyers in the city of Pune. Megh Gholap, co-founder, Khopa Technologies shared the details of the survey during a Press Conference held in the city today. Other co-founders including Devdutta Boralkar and Dr. Geetanjali Gholap were also present on the occasion.
“In the current scenario of housing we often see that there is a huge gap between demand and supply of housing, especially in EWS, LIG and MIG segment. The so called affordable housing which is being offered by the developers is very far off from the city and thus failed to woo home buyers, especially the end users. In such case there was need to scientifically study the need of homes and explore if something can be done to provide what is really needed?” said Megh Gholap.
“Our model which gets land owners, developers, financial institutions, concerned governmental schemes and home buyers together is based on the findings of a survey that had a sample size of over 12000 individuals. This sample survey was conducted for residential areas like Hadapsar Solapur Road, Katraj – Kondhwa Road, Warje – Kothrud – Paud Road, Sinhgad Road, Aundh – Baner – Pashan and Nagar Road –Viman Nagar”, he added.
Some of the key observations from the survey indicate that affordability relates to location, distance, price and size in urban limits and not to the rural areas away from the city. Every city suburb of Pune has a huge need of over 5 Lac homes including all sections like EWS, LIG and MIG. Prospective home buyers are looking for good quality homes in the budget band of Rs.8-10 Lakhs for a 1 RK (One room kitchen), Rs.15-20 Lakhs for 1 BHK and Rs.25-30 Lakhs for 2 BHK within the limits of Municipal Corporation.
Here, the EWS group is defined as the one having earnings upto Rs.25000/- per month, LIG having income from Rs.25000/- to Rs.50000/- per month and MIG as Rs.50000/- to 1 Lakh. In this case people from the organized sector who are employed and are having fixed working terms are 41.6% whereas the prospective buyer from the unorganized sector which is primarily belong self employed category and does not have fixed working terms is about 59.4%.
