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Tata Building $7,800 Apartments in Mumbai

Posted by kdawson on from the piece-of-the-rock dept.

theodp writes "What do you do for an encore after you've shown the world it's possible to build a $2,000 car? Ratan Tata, head of India's giant Tata conglomerate, now plans to build, 30 miles outside of Mumbai, 1,200 tiny apartments that will sell for $7,800 to $13,400 each. Sure, they're small (floor plans), but keep in mind that you can pay a quarter of a million bucks for a 250-sq.-ft. studio in the East Village. Time reports that Tata has had to beef up security to handle the rush of buyers who want to plunk down their $200 deposits (yes, that's two hundred dollars!). Who would've thought you could make IKEA homes look pricey?" The Businessweek.com article says that the apartments are aimed at someone making $6,000 to $10,000 per year (Time says $5,000). In Mumbai, a call center operator with 10 to 20 years of experience barely qualifies at $6,400 annually. 70% of the country's 1.2 billion people live on 1/20 as much.

3 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. ever been to india? by panthroman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sorry to sound snooty, but that's my gut reaction to the "this is unsafe!" comments. Unsafe by American/European standards, probably. Unsafe compared to Indian options? Ha.

    Some photos of life in Delhi (a bit less "European" than Mumbai), including the inside of a couple homes, here. (Disclosure: that's a link to my old travel blog.)

    We should praise improvement, not demand perfection.

    1. Re:ever been to india? by uglyduckling · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Two friends of mine spent their first year of marriage in a student apartment in London. This apartment was even smaller - the dining area was raised by about 60cm, and the double bed was stored underneath the dining area on rollers. The end of the bed stuck out into the living area and formed a sofa. In the evening you pulled on the 'sofa' and the whole bed, linen and pillows etc., rolled out into the living area to sleep in.

  2. There's Safety in Numbers by sanman2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Tata is NOT saving costs by compromising on materials. So how are they saving costs? They're going in for cheaper land that's farther out from the city, and they're paying below market price for it, because they're offering the landholders an amortized profit-sharing across many years. They're then organizing a large number of builders to create entire communities from scratch, including hospitals, schools, marketplaces, and a variety of amenities where there were none before. They're building entire townships, and not just some homes. This is obviously a very capital-intensive approach. Call it the Las Vegas strategy: buying land in the middle of nowhere at low cost, and then building an entire self-supporting community there.