JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Housing Board RHB ) has initiated an exercise to sell its unsold flats and houses on 30-40% discount rates.At present, the board has 11,349 unsold flats in its nine circles, including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur, Alwar and Bikaner.A RHB official said, “The deputy housing commissioners have been directed to send a proposal after reducing the land price. In recent past, wide gap has occurred in RHB rates and market price. We have proposed to take market rates as a benchmark and reduce the RHB prices accordingly. As land prices of RHB is higher, it is expected the house rates will come down by 30- 40%. The maximum number of rates are likely to be reduced in Kota circle,” he said.The move has been initiated following urban housing and development (UDH) minister Shanti Dhariwal’s direction, as due to prolonged slump in the real estate market, many buyers have not showed interest in RHB houses, many houses are unsold.Sources at the department said, after discount, the consumers can purchase RHB houses at Rs 8-10 lakh lesser rates.In the past, RHB made several attempts to sell its flats. However, all turned futile as no many buyers showed interest to purchase its properties. In 2017, the RHB shortlisted properties (flats of different sizes) in Pratap Nagar, Jaipur, for selling over the counter. Unlike the earlier system of allotting houses through draw of lots, wherein buyers had to wait for months, people can purchase RHB houses and take possession in a single day, after depositing the house cost at the counter. “Not many people came forward to buy these flats. This is why the proposal to sell these flats on discount rates has been floated,” said the source.Many believe , revising the RHB rates are necessary as purchasing a MIG and HIG flats became dearer after the RHB in past had increased the reserve price of residential land by 15% to 45 % in comparison with market rates .In areas where construction cost had gone higher, the reserve prices was increased by 40%.In the last two years, the cost has been raised by more than 40%. For instance, cost of MIG–B category flats has gone up to Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh in posh locality such as Mansarovar. A flat which was priced at Rs 45 lakh is approximately Rs 65 lakhs now.

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