Building Luxury In The Times Of Affordable Housing

Community living was not really Sankalp Shukla’s cup of tea.  While a large part of his working life was spent in living in a large luxury home in one of Gurgaon’s posh locality, the 57-year-old top honcho of a multinational kept nurturing the dream of building a grand bungalow on a large portion of land. Plans were weaved in order to be able to meet that goal soon in the later part of his working life. A land parcel was bought in adjoining Manesar a year ago, and the celebratory rituals were performed for the successful completion of the project.

As of now, Shukla feels harrowed. It is hard to find people skilled enough to build what he envisaged. In case they are found, it is hard to keep them engaged. In managing the two, Shukla’s coffers are about to run dry. And the worst part, the man has no idea by when he could expect to move in---delay has been the only constant. Whenever he has the good fortune to enter, he knows for certain it won’t be the quality home he dreamt of.

We know for sure affordable housing is the flavor of the season, and most pieces of news on real estate revolve around that subject line. The Indian government has set for itself an ambitious target--- it has pledged to provide homes to everyone by 2022. In such a difficult terrain, bumps are only expected. Interestingly, these bumps make the best of newspaper headlines. Since our focus has largely been shifted on examining how we are faring in terms of meeting that almost sacred goal of building homes for the homeless, discussing the problems of those who were building luxury homes at the most might have seemed about sinful. If you left alone your preconceived notions about luxury homes and those who live in them aside for a while, you may realise they do not have it easy, either.

If you were to build a large house for yourself today, you would realise soon enough you are headed towards the same fate as India’s real estate developers. Delays and cost overruns would become the key feature of this project that is so close and dear to your person. A sense of tiredness, frustration and distress would quickly follow as byproducts.

Since the big guns in the contractual building world demand big money, Shukla entrusted the job on a newcomer. They are available in the market in plenty and they would offer you deals you can hardly refuse. From thereon, it is going to be difficult. India is building fast for the urban and rural homeless who have been actively engaged in the country’s construction sector. Even if some of them have yet to get a roof over their heads, the idea of home ownership has been inspiring enough to play truant at their jobs. They would rather built government-funded affordable homes which requires moderate skills and promises regular wages—considering the target and the pace at which things are going, India is going to build for a long time.

The contractor would invariably fail to meet deadlines in such a scenario. Newcomers are more likely to be hit by such a problem—it would take them time to build a trusted network of skilled workers.

Since skills are of great importance, a newcomer would also find it hard to, first, find and, second, retain skilled workers. Prepare yourself to see a shoddy job in such a scenario. Even if you have been vigilant like an eagle, chances are the building material may not turn out good enough for its monetary worth.  

Reacting aggressively would be of little help; even if you decide to switch to a pro in such a scenario, you have already blown a hole in your pocket, no matter how replete it is.

The sense of sadism you felt every time a real estate builder went down would quickly be gone with the wind in this new light. You could go on a feel- little empathy for them for delaying projects.