Why Homebuyers are Rushing to MMR

Mumbai Property Insights Nov 28, 2021 0 954 Add to Reading List

What makes the Mumbai Metropolitan Region one of India’s top high-growth, high-potential areas, and a magnet for homebuyers?

In an earlier story about housing sales in the India’s top 7 cities, we revealed that Mumbai Metropolitan Region or MMR in its abbreviated form, accounted for the lion’s share of the top 7 in terms of units sold, clocking an impressive Q-o-Q growth of 128% in Q3, 2021 and a handsome 33% Y-on-Y growth. Even as it scales new peaks, the real estate phenomenon of MMR has been playing out for the last few years as the number of home-seekers who favour it continue to plot an upward spike.

The MMR comprises nine Municipal Corporations – Greater Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli (KDMC), Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayander and Panvel. But what is driving the demand for homes in this urban agglomeration just outside the megapolis of Mumbai, and why is it so evident now?

Benefit of proximity to Mumbai

Spread beyond the northern periphery of Mumbai, the other eight municipalities have no doubt gained from their more established and affluent neighbour. Mumbai itself is a recently-developed city compared with its peers in India. It developed rapidly in the pre- and post-Independence eras, leaving behind neighbouring areas who had to wait until the 80s and 90s to even begin being noticed by outsiders. Once they did, there was no stopping the steady migration of home and job seekers.

In the early years of their development, Thane, Panvel, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar and Bhiwandi were largely industrial centres – home to activity that could not be carried out in Mumbai or was pushed out of it. With jobs came homes as some of the workforce lived nearby but a large number commuted from Mumbai. On the other hand, Navi Mumbai being the region’s first planned city got a head start in terms of immediate growth with readymade housing, infrastructure and greater proximity to Mumbai. Vasai-Virar and Mira-Bhayander became the last urban areas next to Mumbai to join the bandwagon of growth.

The mutually beneficial bond between Mumbai and its neighbouring cities runs deep. A sizable working population of MMR commutes to Mumbai for study, work and even socialise – those that left Mumbai still have friends and relatives in the big city. Mumbai too is dependent on the MMR to fulfil its needs for workers, professionals and labour, as well as provide an alternative housing destination to its bulging population that started spilling out a few decades ago. While Mumbai’s economic prosperity has positively impacted the residents of MMR, they in turn play a large part on keeping the city moving.

Affordable, quality housing destination

Even as Mumbai’s proximity to MMR showered economic and social benefits on both, its booming population found a new home in the smaller cities with less challenges of urban life. The trigger to the housing boom in MMR, however, was the simple matter of affordability.

While property prices continued to look up in Mumbai, the size of its homes kept getting smaller. Not everyone in Mumbai had the inclination or the budget for expensive homes in multi-storey towers. It was only a matter of time before the price of homes in working class neighbourhoods too was beyond the average Mumbaikar. Either that or squalid slums, or a home in the lowest category housing project by a dubious developer or an unpleasant location.

For home seekers, MMR, especially the likes of Thane, Navi Mumbai and Dombivli are a far cry for from the limited and expensive housing choices in Mumbai. The advantage of lower prices, bigger homes, no slums, better quality of life and low population density are no match for the odd hardship of living far from Mumbai and an extra hour or two for the daily commute. In fact, it’s quicker commuting to Navi Mumbai, Thane and even parts of Dombivli than traversing the painfully slow traffic and bottlenecks that befall Mumbai’s roads from its farthest suburbs to its centre.

New centre of infrastructure and connectivity

Even as they continued to grow and proposer, the cities and micro-markets of MMR experienced an evolutionary cycle of their own through less dependence on Mumbai and greater intra and inter-city civic and social infrastructure development. The employment hubs and IT parks of Navi Mumbai, residential hotspots in Thane, affordable housing in Vasai-Virar and Mira-Bhayander, townships in Dombivli, industrial corridors in Panvel, KDMC and Bhiwandi together create a self-sufficient urban ecosystem of interlinked cities.

Photo: Gautam Khetwal via thanephotos.blogspot.com

In particular, KDMC which is the fastest-growing micro-market in MMR, provides homebuyers with all the essentials of a well-developed social infrastructure. Prominent educational institutes, multi-speciality hospitals and healthcare centres, banks, restaurants, shopping and entertainment complexes.

Infrastructurally speaking, the arterial Kalyan-Shilphata connects Kalyan to Dombivli, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Panvel. Even as it is being widened to 6 lanes, a new flyover will connect this location to the Airoli-Katai Tunnel and Multimodal Corridor. The proposed 126 kms-long Alibaug-Virar multimodal corridor will give a further boost to connectivity.

The Bhiwandi-Kalyan-Shilphata Expressway is being built in earnest will improve the commute between Mumbai-Pune Highway at Shilphata and the Mumbai–Nashik Highway at Bhiwandi. At the other end o this region, CIDCO plans to extend the Navi Mumbai metro to Kalyan. The upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport is less than 35 km. from the heart of KDMC.

The population of MMR has steadily increased in recent years, reflecting the increasing demand for housing. In the last two of three decades, the creation of numerous employment opportunities through industrial and technology hubs, greater connectivity to Mumbai and nearby cities, exponential growth of housing, especially large integrated townships, have supported the walk-to-work concept. These factors have increased the liveability index of MMR and resulted in rising demand for housing. The region has attracted reputed developers who have established their footprint owing to future growth potential. Kalyan-Shil Road, Manpada and Palava are among the most aspirational neighbourhoods throughout MMR with high quality projects in the works and more investments coming.

The magnetism of MMR as a housing hotspot will continue to attract developers and homebuyers in the near and mid-term. Its time you gave a thought to living in MMR like the millions who did in recent years and have a better quality of life to show for it.

2021 has been the best year in a long time to buy a home. Our pick of these leading projects in MMR present the best opportunities this year and the near future to purchase an affordable, quality home at a great location with promising growth potential whether you are a resident Indian or NRI.