Tata guns for the middle class again...

Closely on the heels of the launch of the Worlds cheapest car and getting a record 2 lac plus bookings for the 1 lac Nanos, Tata is back again.But this time its something more unique though once more they are after the middle class segment.Last week Tata has launched houses in the low cost segment in a township at Boisar which is 35 km from Nerul,a Mumbai suburb.

For decades the India middle class has been growing and defeating the upper class and the super rich at their own game.From advancing from a two wheeler to a four wheeler Nano now the Tata's have launched homes in the range of 3.9 to 7 lacs.Now that might sound really cheap considering the fact that these are full ownership homes to be bought that too at a place near the Mumbai suburbs.In a city where flats sell in the range of 30 lac plus range,this surely seems to be one more winner from the Tata stable.

According to initial estimates,Tatas expect to sell these houses in the next couple of years for which booking forms have already started selling.And as the sentiment of owning a house which is quite close to the heart of many Mumbaikars this offer is surely up for grabs!
This township from the Indian conglomerate comes at a time when the Global as well as Indian real estate market is going through its roughest patch in past several decades.And ,Tata is still reeling under the pressure of manufacturing Nano cars and delivering it to the customers along with the additional burden of ill timed last years acquisitions of steel maker Corus and luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover units.Recently,Ratan Tata has also admitted that the acquisitions were indeed made at a time when the global markets were at their peaks.After which due to the world wide recessions the same units are worth a lot less than last year.

Coming back to the low end housing scheme, I believe its not that rosy a picture as one would expect it to be.
Firstly,the place chosen is quite far from the mainland City.This would prove to be a bad idea for people who in this case would have to travel around 100 km daily to reach their offices.Second,the infrastructure that we all complain about in the city is even worse as there are not proper roads.Imagine buying a house and then struggling daily to reach there after a tiring day at work.Also Boisar being a manufacturing hub would mean more pollution as compared to some of the greener suburbs of Mumbai.

The fate of this new scheme is something that only time will tell.But as far as Tatas are concerned, till today they have already managed to sell around 3500 forms with each form costing Rs.200 plus a Rs.10,000 booking amount !!