The government of Maharashtra has revised guidelines to modify the permitted carpet area of apartments to be built and sold under the High-Income Group (HIG) and Middle-Income Group (MIG) through lottery mechanism of the Maharashtra Housing & Area Development, the state government’s nodal agency and statutory housing authority.
As per the guidelines the apartments under MIG category will now be spread over up to 968 sq ft as against earlier permitted space of Rs 1,722 sq ft for HIG category, the carpet area has been increased from the limit of 2,152 sq ft to any configuration above 968 sq ft now.
The state government has also restricted the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and low-income group (LIG) from applying for HIG segments apartments. Applicants from these categories were earlier allowed to apply for any apartments under any category.
However to avoid the possibility of no sale of apartments, despite securing the allotment through a lotter, given their economy their income levels and limited loan eligibility for a bigger apartment, the government has decided to allow applicant from each category to apply in their respective category or just one category higher than that.
The new guidelines state the applicants from the EWS category can apply for apartments in the EWS and LIG segment, while LIG applicants can apply for apartments in their category and MIG. Likewise, prospective homebuyers in the MIG category can apply for MIG and HIG apartments. However, HIG homebuyers can only apply in their category, the Government Resolution (GR) said.
In regions such Mumbai Metropolitian Region (MMR) Pune Metropolitian Region Development Authority (PMRDA) and Nagpur apart from other cities with population of over 10 lakh, a person with annual income of up to Rs 6 lakh and up to Rs 9 lakh falls under EWS and LIG segment.
An applicant with annual income of upto Rs 12 lakh is part of MIG and any income level above that will be treated as high income group applicant. The revised guidelines will be built under various schemes of MHADA and on the land parcels allotted by the development authority.
