Cashing in on the low-cost home rush Does low-cost housing make economic sense? It seems to.
Developers believe the loss in margins (20 per cent in affordable housing, against 50-300 per cent in case of premium housing) can be made up somewhat by the sheer volumes of sales. Rajeev Talwar, group executive director of DLF, says: 'Every group has to chart out its strategy. We have decided to take on the market by pricing our products 30 per cent lower than others, even if it means less margins.' In any case, as Rashesh Shah, chairman of brokerage firm Edelweiss points out, the days of making a killing are over. 'Sales weren't happening anyway and developers have finally realised that they would survive only if they brought prices down,' Shah says. That realisation has prompted developers to tweak their strategies and reduce apartment sizes to attract home buyers. For instance, Unitech has stopped giving modular kitchens and is laying vitrified tiles instead of expensive marbles in its affordable housing projects, apart from cutting parking and basement space. It also restricts the total floors in a building to three-four to save on construction costs. *Text: Raghavendra Kamath & Neeraj Thakur * *Powered by * <http://www.business-standard.com/> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
