Almost one-third of the homebuyers to whom flats were allotted in the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority's (MHADA) Konkan Board 2025 housing lottery have given up their allotments, as per reports of Hindustan Times, citing reasons like affordability, location, and personal preference.
The Konkan Board had put up for lottery a total of 5,285 flats and 77 plots in Thane, Palghar, Badlapur, and Sindhudurg in October. Out of these, 762 units were of the inclusive housing and scattered tenements categories, in which the winners are not required to show their acceptance or refusal. The rest of the 4,523 allottees had to decide whether they would go on with the allotment.
According to internal MHADA documents, out of these 4,523 allottees, 2,176 winners accepted their flats, while 1,374, nearly 30% surrendered their allotment. Another 973 winners had not communicated their decision until Tuesday.
The high surrender rate is notable, particularly given the continued popularity of MHADA lotteries. This year’s Konkan Board draw attracted approximately 1,16,000 applications, reflecting strong demand for affordable housing in the region.
A senior MHADA official explained that applicants decline their allotments for a variety of reasons. “Some find the price unaffordable, some don’t like the location or the specific flat offered, and some win more than one home in different categories,” the official said. “Under MHADA rules, a family can retain only one flat, even if it wins multiple tenements, forcing winners to choose and surrender the rest.”
Choosing to forgo a flat is typically the result of a deliberation over the financial and logistical factors. A significant number of the applicants pointed out the overall expense of the property, that is, the total amount of money to be paid, including stamp duty, the registration charges, and home loan installments, as the primary reason for their choice to do so. However, some residents voiced that long distances to and from workplaces, schools, and other necessary facilities are a major problem, especially in the farthest areas of the Konkan region, thus making it inconvenient to live there.
In the last five years, MHADA has taken the initiative to put most of the activities related to documentation after a lottery into the online mode. Via the portal, the people who have been chosen may either give their consent or show their nonacceptance to their allotment before they can move on to the subsequent steps such as getting the intimation letter, confirming the documents, making a payment, and receiving the allotment letter.
The entire process online is designed to ease up the hard work involved in the documentation and to shorten the waiting time, thus, it should be nice and convenient for the applicants to complete the transaction within their desired time frame.
MHADA has prolonged the time to reply for the 973 winners who had not made up their mind from October 28 to November 28, 2025. With this extension, the applicants get extra time to think over their choices and carry out any required procedures before confirming their decision.
The surrender of so many units does not in any way affect the continuing of the MHADA lotteries which are still attracting a lot of people, thus low and middle-income families will have access to affordable housing in the Konkan region where the prices of real estate keep going up. Authorities going on with their reminders advise applicants to be very careful and deliberate with the choices that they make, noting that it is still a requirement that only one flat per family is retained.
Once the November 28 cutoff date is here, MHADA officials will be able to get together and work on the final list showing both the flats that have been accepted and the ones that have been surrendered. This will be a guide to the next stages of allocation, paperwork, and possession for lottery winners of 2025 Konkan Board in conjunction with the announcement of the results by MHADA.
Image source- mhada.gov.in
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