Mumbai's Unused Real Estate: A Crime Against Citizens
A few months back, I was in the western suburb of Kandivali, and a short walk demonstrated why the city is becoming unliveable for a majority of the population. Like almost every part of Mumbai, it was seeing dramatic amounts of construction in housing. My eye caught a glance at a pleasant low-rise building. It was a school, owned by the municipal corporation.
But there was a problem. No one was there. It had been lying unused since 2024. While the BMC owns the school, it did not build it. A private developer did. In a way, this is a success story of municipal regulations. The ideal government-builder partnership. The government provides benefits to the builder with the only tool it has at its disposal: FSI. Or the permission to construct homes. In return, the builder constructs homes to sell to buyers, and along with that, he builds a school free for the municipal corporation. Everyone gains. Technically.
Unfortunately, the most important leg of the transaction fails. That’s because the public does not get to use that school. I can’t fathom a single plausible reason why an aesthetically well-built school, given free of cost to the municipal corporation, is lying unused in a city where there is a severe shortage of schools and fees in private schools are hitting record highs every year. The private developer did his bit. The corporation has not done its bit.
Thereafter, at a 300-metre walk, another example of this one-sided relationship between government and the public was on display. A tall building with homes is to be built under the condition that a municipal market will be provided to the corporation. Next to the residential building. The tall building was built. The “municipal market” was also built. Unfortunately, everything else except the presence of the municipal market was visible to the naked eye.
In a way, it is the harsh truth of Mumbai’s governance. A model where municipal regulations provide for holistic development comprising homes, schools, hospitals, gardens, municipal markets, etc. But that provision gets abused. The homes meant for the buyers – they always get built. The schools and hospitals – they get built sometimes. The tragedy is that even after they are built, in several cases they are unused. This is a city which has the most expensive real estate in the world. It is a crime against citizens to have unused real estate in Mumbai. And that crime is being committed on a daily basis.
Part of the problem is awareness. A majority of the population views a real estate project and believes they have no stake in it. That’s an incorrect assumption. Regulations ensure that projects above a certain size have to provide amenities for the public. Every large real estate project has to provide homes to the buyers. But also provide something for the public – be it a garden, parking area, school, hospital, etc.
An easy solution has emerged for the upper middle-class. They purchase homes in gated communities wherein they don’t need to see the ugly face of the state. Unfortunately, that service comes at a fee and is not affordable to the majority of the population. The tougher solution is that neighbourhoods keep a tight vigil on their surroundings and force their respective elected representatives and municipal officials to deliver on what is legal and available. Regulations have forced builders to become almost a quasi-stakeholder in city governance. Most builders are fulfilling their bit. It’s time the real stakeholder in governance rises to the occasion. The crime against citizens must stop.
