By IANS,
New Delhi : Realty major Puravankara Projects will invest Rs.80 billion for its foray into affordable housing through its wholly owned subsidiary, Provident Housing and Infrastructure Limited, the company announced Wednesday.
In the first phase, the affordable housing project will cover Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, and Mysore where 64,500 homes with a total built-up area of 59.80 million square feet will be constructed over the next five years.
The funding for these projects will be through construction debt and customer advances amounting to Rs.65 billion, with internal accruals and equity sourcing the remaining Rs.15 billion which will be utilized for land acquisitions.
In the second phase, the company will cover cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi, Jaipur, Pune and Nagpur.
The prices of Provident homes, which are to be developed in a phased manner, are currently priced at Rs.1 million, Rs.1.5 million and Rs.2 million and comprise of one, two and three bedrooms.
The first three projects of Provident in Bangalore and Mysore of over 19,000 homes are in the advanced stages and the Bangalore project of 5,100 homes will be ready for launch in a few months.
Provident Housing and Infrastructure managing director Jayakar Jerome said: “Provident will target middle-class families and first time home buyers with the objective of meeting the ever increasing demand in this largely under serviced market.”
With rising income levels and aspirations and the emergence of a new salaried class in the country, the demand for homes has far outpaced the supply. According an estimate, India’s housing shortage has increased from 19.4 million units in 2004 to 22.4 million in 2005-06 and this figure has since only kept rising.