‘Demand drop, verdicts, politics led to fall of ‘community-specific’ housing projects’

In the past 3 decades, many Mumbai builders started selling apartments only to restricted communities as this would fetch a huge premium for their housing projects

Mumbai Ashok Khamkar, 75, a businessman from Lalbaug, was denied a flat in a housing society 20 years ago, as it was reserved only for Jains, while Pankaj Kapoor of Liases Foras firm was not allowed to buy an apartment in Mazagaon a decade ago as the building was meant only for Dawoodi Bohra Muslims. Years later, discrimination on the basis of religion and language has receded substantially, thanks to the drop in demand for such exclusive societies, court rulings as well as the voice raised against the concept.

The community-specific housing projects mushroomed at Parel, Lalbaug, Ghatkopar, Goregaon, Mulund, Vile Parle, Malabar Hill, Byculla, Mazagaon and Borivli. (HT FILE)

Khamkar who owns a spice shop at Lalbaug – a predominantly Maharashtrian area – gets angry every time he recollects the incident. When Khamkar went to book an apartment in a newly announced project, the builder curtly refused, saying, “This project is only for Jains.” Though he had directly complained to prominent Shiv Sena leaders, he could not get any respite as the builder just doubled his sale price, thus forcing Khamkar to abandon his mission.

In the past three decades, as Mumbai witnessed surge in construction activities, many builders started selling apartments only to restricted communities as this would fetch a huge premium for their projects. The main beneficiaries were the Jains and the Gujarati and Dawoodi Bohra communities. Other communities were strictly excluded in such projects.

The community-specific construction projects mushroomed at Parel, Lalbaug, Ghatkopar, Goregaon, Mulund, Vile Parle, Malabar Hill, Byculla, Mazagaon and Borivli. In case of the Jain community, the builder would construct a ‘Derasar’ or a Jain temple and charge premium for such projects. In Mazagaon and Byculla, the influential members of the Dawoodi Bohra community would negotiate with the builders and ensure that all flats are bought by their members, thus saving precious time as well as ensuring faster money for the builder.

Decades later, as massive slowdown hit the real estate sector and resulted in fewer sales, builders are no longer building exclusive enclaves for any particular section of the society.

Liases Foras, a real estate research firm, said the current decision is influenced by the monetary crises faced by the realty sector.

“Currently the whole focus of the builders is to sell their apartments. They are not in a position to deny the flats to anyone as they are facing paucity of funds to finance their projects. In the current market, builders can no longer take the risk of launching any project for a particular community as they are not assured that it will be fully booked by the community members,” said Pankaj Kapoor, managing director, Liases Foras.

Kapoor has a point. Recently, a well-known, listed real estate company had launched a project at Lalbaug for the Jain community, but then opened doors to all communities as he failed to elicit adequate response from the Jains.

Sukhraj Nahar, founder, Nahar Group, one of the reputed construction firms which had constructed Sarvodaya Nagar at Mulund exclusively for the Jain community, says “We have moved towards having mixed population in our projects.”

Similar is the stance of Rajesh Vardhan who runs a 50-year old company, Vardhman Builders. He said the group has always believed in constructing inclusive houses.

“Our whole focus is on sales, and religion is a secondary factor for us. We have lots of buyers even from the Muslim community,” said Vardhan.

Kailash Agarwal, chairman of Avighna Group, which is responsible for executing the first cluster revamp project in Mumbai— One Avighna Park at Lalbaug — said that the stands taken by the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are also responsible for the exclusive housing projects being junked. “Both MNS and Shiv Sena are competing with each other by espousing the Marathi cause and will not allow any discrimination towards Maharashtrians. In such a scenario, builders cannot afford to take such risks [making exclusive projects for religious communities] in their projects,” said Agarwal.

In addition, a series of court verdicts against such discrimination has also made things difficult for the builders to indulge in such “adventurism”.

Advocate Vinod Sampat said, “In recent times, due to the advent of social media, these practices are being looked down upon and even the courts have come down heavily on such unconstitutional steps.”

The Marathi Ekikaram Samiti (MES), which works for the welfare of Maharashtrians, had recently filed a first information report (FIR), the first of its kind against a seller who had refused to sell his flat to a Maharashtrian buyer. A developer named Rahul Dedhia had posted an advertisement on Facebook stating that he wanted to sell his 1-BHK (bedroom-hall-kitchen) flat in a building that only allows Gujarati, Jain and Marwadi community members. MES head, Govardhan Deshmukh, who wanted to buy the flat, filed a complaint at Mira Road police over the prejudice, following which an FIR was registered against Dedhia under IPC section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony).

Deshmukh said he will now target builders who deny flats to members of any community. “We are asking people to file FIRs against builders who deny houses to members of other communities, be it Maharashtrians or Muslims,” said Deshmukh. MES has also written a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, asking him to crack down on such errant builders.

The Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIOI), which takes up issues related to the Muslim community, points that more than 60% of builders in Mumbai deny flats to Muslims.

“In many cases, Muslims prefer ghettos where they are in a majority as it ensures security to them. However, we see that the real estate suffers from Islamophobia, and Muslims are denied flats in a majority of the projects,” said Fawaz Shaheen, general secretary, SIOI. The organisation wants the state government to enact a law under which such discriminatory practices are abolished.

Real estate expert Ajay Chaturvedi said such enclaves are still in existence in micro-markets.

“Mid- and small-sized builders are still catering to buildings that are meant exclusively for some communities. If buyers from other communities come, the marketing team is instructed to tell that the project is fully booked or quote very exorbitant rates so that they don’t buy the flat. Many firms don’t refuse openly fearing backlash, but adopt such tactics,” said Chaturvedi.

Rishi Rupawat, who lives in an exclusive Jain colony at Lalbaug, supports such enclaves. “Our colony has Jain community hailing from four major districts of Rajasthan, and this gives us a chance to bond. We can even practice our religion very freely,” said Rupawat.