They say the Nuclear family is almost becoming extinct. Existing Nuclear families have become confined to just the rural areas and villages of India. The so called ancestral homes are being demolished to be replaced by smaller individual homes or are being converted to hotels and other businesses. In the cities space has become such a premium that where a single house stood on a plot of land (2400 sqft) a dozen flats are built in its place. Therefore a dozen families now live in a place where there was only one. But are flats to be “looked down” with contempt? Aren’t there any upsides to the “flat culture”?

Let’s look at some answers

Affordable housing

The biggest advantage for home buyers is that a flat IS AFFORDABLE. Building a house on a plot of land has become a thing of the past. These days no one wants to wait and go through the hassle of building one either. Rising construction and labour costs and land prices have made building individual homes almost impossible in cities. Flats provide an easy and convenient solution to affording a home. 

Buying Ready-to-occupy flats

A new trend is also emerging. There are several home buyers who buy readymade flats, i.e ones fully completed. People aren’t waiting for years paying an advance. They want a home and are willing to pay full prices and get fully “completed” and “delivered” flats.  There is a another reason why this is happening. Of late there have been several big players who have either abandoned their projects or have delayed delivery of projects by years from the promised date of delivery. Furthermore several flats even crumbled and fell before they were completed due to poor construction. 

For the aged, flats and housing colonies are a boon

First of all there is easy accessibility to the several areas of a home as there is less space to walk around. Maintenance is also easy. In several ancestral homes senior citizens can hardly walk up to the first floors. Flats offer better company, and there is always someone to rush to in case of a medical emergency. Being burgled is less common in flats and housing colonies when compared to individual homes. Moreover there is a community feeling with most flats and housing colonies having associations and some run very efficiently.

Flats cannot be denounced as unwanted. If only builders took a little more pains to maintain ethics and aesthetics flats can be a welcome home for any family particularly the old and the needy and the lonely.

Rincon is currently building such homes using technology to deliver lost cost housing that are easily affordable, Rs. 5 lakhs for a two bedroom flat for a Government Project in Telangana. Furthermore with PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) even loans are available to buy a home. Imagine, one can now purchase a two bedroom home for the price of a car.