BDA’s first villa project gets good response, but authority decides not to take up more such projects

Punith Rajkumar Housing Complex by BDA offers competitively priced villas in Bangalore outskirts with good response.

Punith Rajkumar Housing Complex, the first-ever villa project by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) at Hunnigere, in Dasanapura hobli between Magadi Road and Tumakuru Road, has got a good response with more than half of the units already being booked. This is in contrast to a large unsold inventory of flats in apartment complexes the authority has built.

The BDA, however, has decided to not take up more villa projects and instead focus on building more affordable apartments.

Of the 239 villas, over 100 of them were booked at a mela organised by the BDA last week. “We got a very good response for the villa project, despite being on the outskirts of the city. The villas, duplex houses with three and four bedrooms, are very competitively priced in today’s market, probably prompting the high demand,” BDA Commissioner N. Jayaram said.

The project has 239 villas — 121 units of 4 BHK villas that cost ₹1.26 crore a unit and 118 units of 3 BHK villas of two dimensions costing ₹1.15 crore and ₹90 lakh each. The project also has an apartment complex with 1 BHK flats for economically weaker sections at ₹14 lakh.

“This is more of a township than just a group housing project. It has 29 parks, playgrounds, including cricket and basketball stadiums, a 600 kl/day sewage treatment plant, separate sumps for drinking and non-drinking water, an overhead tank, a water pump for each house, a club house, and a cafeteria. Like other group housing projects, a monthly maintenance charge will be charged,” said a senior BDA officer.

However, despite the good response, the BDA is not keen on taking up more villa projects. “The villa project needs more land. In this case, we got the land at a cheap cost. But acquiring big parcels of land closer to the city is increasingly becoming a costly affair. In that case, we will not be able to provide villas at an affordable price even for the middle class. So we have decided to instead focus on providing housing for the poor and lower middle class with apartment complexes, which need less land,” Mr. Jayaram said.

When quizzed about the lack of a good response for flats, he said the demand for flats was also picking up. “Of the 3,000 flats, we have till now sold nearly 1,500 units and we are confident of selling the rest,” he said.