Young Professionals Target for New Affordable Housing Project: Sobha Ltd

Bengaluru-based Sobha Ltd (formerly Sobha Developers) which is known for its luxury housing projects has decided to enter the mid-income or affordable housing segment with the launch of its latest project 'Sobha Dream Series'.

"The project is targeted at young 30 plus white-collared professionals," JC Sharma, vice chairman and managing director told NDTV. (Watch)

The project that consists of studio apartments (650 square feet) and two-bedroom apartments (1,200 square feet) are coming up on the outskirts of Bengaluru in Balagere, and are priced between Rs 40-75 lakh. The project will have club houses, swimming pools, multiple outdoor activity areas and basement car parking for every home.

Sobha said the Bengaluru project is the first in its affordable housing series and it plans to have many more of them across the country, as well as in the IT capital itself.

Speaking on muted demand in the housing space, Mr Sharma said, "Customers, now that they know EMIs (equated monthly instalments) are coming down, hopefully demand will come back."

All major banks have cut home loan rates, with the country's largest lender State Bank of India or SBI offering home loans at 9.9 per cent. HDFC, which is one of the country's largest home loan providers, has also cut rates to 9.9 per cent, as has ICICI Bank. For women borrowers, home loans from SBI and ICICI Bank are available at an interest rate of 9.85 per cent each.

The Bengaluru project is being developed on a 81-acre land parcel, with a developable area of around 10 million square feet with 7,000 homes. The company hopes to realise Rs 4,200 crore at current prices from the project.

The Sobha stock at 2:13 pm was trading flat at Rs 410, while the broader Nifty and the Sensex were down around 0.50 per cent.