Housing glut in Ghaziabad: UP plans up to 25% discount to clear 10,000 unsold flats

GHAZIABAD: UP govt is planning discounts of up to 25% to help clear an inventory of nearly 10,000 unsold flats built by Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) and UP Housing Board in the city.The push comes through the Model Costing Guidelines Basic Principles 2025, introduced to dispose of unsold inventories of flats and plots and to standardise pricing across development authorities and housing board.There are 1,748 unsold flats built by GDA across five housing schemes. Housing board, meanwhile, has around 8,000 unsold units in Ghaziabad alone - about 4,000 in Sidharth Vihar's Ganga Yamuna and Hindon schemes and another 4,000 in the Mandola housing scheme.There was a lack of uniformity across development authorities over the costing of flats and plots."To do away with this, UP govt introduced the guidelines. Following the cabinet's approval, principal secretary (housing and urban planning) P Guruprasad issued directions to all development authorities to implement the new guidelines," a GDA official said.The official said the revised costing would factor in land acquisition rates, external and internal development charges and construction cost, and is expected to lower the per unit prices by up to about 25% compared with existing rates.

Apart from the 25% discount on the base price, the guidelines provide for further rebates for faster payment - 6% for a one-time payment within 45 days, 5% within 60 days and 4% within 90 days.Premium charges have also been capped more tightly. Flats and plots, such as corner units, parking facing units and those on 18-metre-wide roads, will be priced 5% higher, with the cap set at 5% against the earlier 8% to 10%, the official said.

However, for all three benefits together, the maximum additional charge will not exceed 12% of the original cost. Among other features, the rate of interest on EWS and LIG flats is fixed at 8%.For GDA, where unsold stock spans categories from EWS to larger houses, the per unit cost currently ranges from Rs 5.7 lakh for EWS units to Rs 69.4 lakh across schemes offering 1, 2 and 3 BHK as well as mini LIG and LIG flats. Housing board's inventory is priced higher - a 1 BHK is listed at Rs 69.4 lakh, a 2 BHK at Rs 87 lakh and a 3 BHK at Rs 1.1 crore.