If Wishes Were Houses

Home buyers who paid through the nose seem as distant from their dream homes as ever

- Lola Nayar

Long stretches of towering but incomplete residential buildings dot the landscape along the highways that head out of the capital, whether on Noida Expressway or near Gurgaon towards Sohna or Manesar. Many of them, like Jaypee’s Wish Town along Noida Expressway, seem to have hardly any workers on the site, while the pace of work in many others is much slower than one witnessed just five years ago.

“Out of around 35,000 flats being constructed in Wish Town, hardly around 5,000 have been delivered so far,” says Sanjeev Sahani, 57, who has paid Rs 40 lakh of the total Rs 54 lakh price of a two-bedroom flat in Wish Town that he booked in 2007. “It’s been 10 years since the project started and 90 per cent of the payments have been collected from buyers, but not even 20 per cent of the units are ready.” Eight 32-storey buildings had been proposed in Wish Town, but none has gone beyond 18th floor yet.

Sahani, who had expected to get ­possession of his dream home in 2010, is now part of several groups of ­aggrieved buyers seeking government and court help in the matter. “I am not sure whether I will get my flat in the next 10 years,” says Sahani, disheartened by the insolvency proceedings initiated by IDBI Bank against the developer, Jaypee Infratech, for defaulting on loan repayment.