DDA Deadline Extended With Changed Forfeiture Clause

Housing about half the population of the National Capital, the DDA Housing Scheme has provided more than a million affordable homes to the people of Delhi since its establishment in 1957. It has come up with various schemes time and again to fulfill the housing requirement of people. The Delhi Development Authority identifies the purchasing capacity and requirements of the residents of the capital city and builds property for the different strata of the society. The authority has acquired more than 67,354.88 acres of land in Delhi out of which it has developed 59,504 acres of land for different uses. More than 44 housing registration schemes have been announced by DDA until 2013 and it is all set to announce more in the coming years.

The latest housing scheme announced by Delhi Development Authority is for the present year 2017 where it is providing more than 12,000 flats for residential purposes. Anyone who is above 18 years of age can apply under this scheme and get a house. The last date for the submission of DDA forms was set to be 11 August 2017 but has now been extended by a month to 11 September 2017. This means that those willing to buy a DDA home in Delhi under different income group still have around a month to file their application. The number of applications was not adequate to end the application process and hence the deadline extension became inescapable for the DDA Housing Authority. Only 8,000 applications were received till the closing of the application process for around 12,072 flats allotted. The DDA flats are an important part of the Delhi property and the authority was left shocked when the number of applications did not turn out to be as expected.

“We have extended the date till September 11, as we have not received an adequate number of applications,” confirmed a senior DDA official. Unable to receive the desired response from the people, the Delhi Development Authority has extended the last date for the submission of the DDA forms by a month. The main reason suspected behind this poor response could be the forfeiture clause added by the DDA on the registration sum. JP Agarwal, Principal Commissioner of DDA Land Disposal and Housing said, “Due to the clause, banks were not giving loans. But now we have relaxed the clause and are hopeful that this will make it easier for people to avail loans from banks,”

In order to ensure that only serious buyers applied for the houses, the DDA Housing Authority added the forfeiture clause. This clause would penalize the buyers who will be allotted the house through the draw and still want to cancel their registration. Earlier the applicants who want their registration money back after receiving the allotment letter would have to pay a penalty ranging from 25% to 100%. A penalty of 25%, 50% and 100% of application money was supposed to be levied on people who wanted to withdraw their registration before receiving allotment letter, within 90 days of issuing of allotment and in 91-180 days of issuing respectively.

However, noticing the lower response rate, the DDA Housing Authority has decided to trim down the penalty on the registration sum. The officials said that the penalty has been relaxed now which would trigger the house registration process. On the revised clause, JP Agarwal of DDA Land Disposal and Housing said, "Now, if a person withdraws within 15 days of the issue of the demand letter, there will be no penalty levied. For next 15 days, he/she will have to pay 10% penalty. The allottee will have to forfeit 50% of the earnest money if he/she withdraws within 90 days of the issue of the demand letter."

You can get Janta flats between Rs 7.07 lakh and 12.76 lakh, LIG flats between Rs 14.50 lakh and 30.30 lakh, MIG flats between Rs 31.32 lakh and 93.95 lakh and other flats between Rs 53.52 lakh and 1.26 crore. So, what are you waiting for? The Delhi Development Authority has understood you woes and made the necessary changes in the forfeiture clause. Get going and fill the form by September 11, 2017, to register for the houses under DDA housing scheme.