Tata Building $7,800 Apartments in Mumbai

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.

You can get a house for that

[Kohath]

The median price of a house in Detroit is $7500 [walletpop.com]. Floorplans vary, but they are larger than these apartments. Home prices are relative.

I'm sure people are happy to buy a nice place in Mumbai, so the market supports higher prices. No one wants to live in a corrupt one-party third-world conflict zone like Detroit.

ever been to india?

[panthroman]

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 [blogspot.com]. (Disclosure: that's a link to my old travel blog.)

We should praise improvement, not demand perfection.

Re:ever been to india?

[uglyduckling]

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.

Re:You can get a house for that

[Unordained]

The median price of a home sold in Detroit in December [2008] was $7,500, according to Realcomp, a listing service.

Their site doesn't make data public (some spreadsheets are available to registered agents,) so I can't tell if that was a really odd month (very few sales?) Checking Century 21 listings under $25k for Detroit shows very few entries for under $10k, making the likelihood of a median of $7500 rather low, even under their less-than-stellar market conditions. Maybe the county records can clarify, but I'm done fact-checking. I'll agree their housing is cheap though; and I'm in Oklahoma, so that's saying something.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:very cheap + little material =unsafe

[MikeFM]

Have you seen how they build the average home? A normal priced home in my area is around $300k and if you see how they build them I don't see how these cheap structures could be much worse and remain standing.

You get a bunch of idiots with little understanding of physics haphazardly building from poorly conceived plans using the cheapest building materials they can find. If something isn't right then band-aid it so it'll pass inspection and don't worry that two months later it'll go to hell. So long as these cheap apartments follow international building code at least as well as the local schmucks then I doubt it could be any worse.

I'd think a micro apartment could be great for people that commute. A local place to take a nap or shower or stay over in bad weather. I'd consider buying one if they had them locally. A plac

Re:very cheap + little material =unsafe

[atamido]

So long as these cheap apartments follow international building code

I had no idea, but there apparently is an international building code. Granted, it's not law in many places, but it is interesting still.

Re:very cheap + little material =unsafe

[Firethorn]

Have you seen how they build the average home? A normal priced home in my area is around $300k and if you see how they build them I don't see how these cheap structures could be much worse and remain standing.

Do you have any idea of the markup they have(had) on those homes? Are you thinking of a prebubble-burst price?

How much is tied up in impact fees, taxes, other miscellaneous hardware, not to mention the land?

What's the square footage of these homes? A 4k square foot monster? 2k 3 bedroom with a huge kitchen?

People don't NEED* that much space. In poorer areas, that 2k square foot house would be a multifamily structure. India is still poorer.

So everything costs less - labor, materials, land, etc... And the resources required for a 'McMansion' - a cheaply constructed large house, can instead be used to build smaller homes much better.

These are likely to be cheap and small though - but still better than what the renters/buyers would otherwise have.

Like with the Tata car - you have to realize that even though the car isn't safe compared to other cars, the market for the most part consists of those that would otherwise be riding mopeds/motorcycles, which aren't safer than the car, especially when you consider the things they do with it - like the pictures where they have seven people on the same bike at the same time, or are carrying a huge load of ducks or firewood.

Risk management and resource usage wise, the Tata is a good choice.

*I will admit that it can be nice

fiat

[zogger]

I used to drive a fiat 850 spider. Dang *smaller* than a Nano and what a fun little car, wish I still had it. Medium zippy and got 50 MPG! I rebuilt the engine and transaxle and it was just swell. Worked fine as a commuter and although it wasn't a real hotrod, being a little bitty convertible it was a babe magnet, they'd go "cute"!! heh,. fringe benefits ;)

There's Safety in Numbers

[sanman2]

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.

Re:THIS IS NOT NEWS FOR NERDS!!!

[hplus]

Unfortunately, that attitude is what creates many of the problems of LI housing. If a small (relatively) number of subsidized housing units are incorporated into each individual location, things are just peachy. However, when you attempt to put a large amount of subsidized housing in one location (the projects) then all of the stereotypical problems arise. Since this is what cause the stereotypes, not the properly done ones, fewer communities are willing to accept subsidized housing, and large amounts of it are mashed into communities that are willing to accept it, then the typical problems occur, then the stereotypes are perpetuated.

Re:Not Ghetto

[FiloEleven]

Yes, God forbid I ask a question of someone who appears knowledgeable and interested in a related topic, also giving a chance to some other interested party to respond. Nope, I should take whatever pre-packaged info already exists provided I tweak the query enough to get something relevant.

I prefer my information to be organic, thank you very much.