Rising number of building collapse mar Mumbai’s real estate market

The skyline of India’s financial capital, Mumbai, is dotted with debile buildings, which are likely to endanger the lives of the residents during a strong monsoon. The recent wave of building collapse in Mumbai has reached an alarming rate and has highlighted the number of poorly structured buildings in the city that require immediate attention.

With the approaching monsoon, and the consistent reports of new building disasters in Mumbai, the real estate market of the city have been in the news for quite some time now. Collapse of buildings has also pointed out the authorities’ failure to modulate illegal constructions and shoddy buildings. Questions have also been raised about the policy of civic bodies for enforcing norms for poorly constructed buildings.

Increasing number of building collapse

Collapse of buildings in Mumbai is mainly attributed to old age, however, that is not the reason in every case. Collapse of building in Thane, in April, was as a result of poor construction on the part of the developers. Most of the buildings collapsed were illegal and were never authorized or overseen by official agencies. Similar instances can be found in Mahim and Dahisar, where buildings have collapsed like a pack of cards.

Illegal constructions have began to mushroom in the city because of the growing population and in this case it is poor quality of construction. It is the byproduct of inadequate building bylaws and developers’ intention to maximize the salable area. Many of the edifices in Mumbai, which are more than 60 years old, were constructed in haste when the city was turning into a commercial hub. According to JLL, such a surge in demand in a metropolitan city offers a great opportunity for the developers to build modern buildings with poor materials for more profit.

Factors that let to buildings collapse

The prime factors that bear the responsibility for the collapse of buildings in Mumbai are unchecked real estate speculation and defective urban policies. According to market reports, most of such incidents take place near far Mumbai periphery, where there are abundant hastily built residential blocks for a middle class Mumbaikar.

Property consultants further corroborate that a number of rules were violated while constructing such structures. Buildings, which have collapsed lacked approved plan, occupancy certificate and quality construction materials. Consequently, such violation of rules contributed to illegal building structures that eventually tumbled.

Present condition of the real estate market

According to property experts, much of the land shortage is caused by the government corruption. Such artificial shortage of land worsens the national economy, making the urban middle class suffer because of less housing options and Mumbai is no aberration. Collapse of buildings has stimulated the growth of a huge real estate sector, fueled the rate and height of buildings, increased the construction speed and reduced the quality of new buildings in Mumbai and its outskirts.

In order to adjust the growing population of Mumbai and deal with the shortage of land, developers promote the construction of vertical skyline. This is due to the reason that high structures can only meet the demand of the increasing number of buyers. Numerous skyscrapers are in construction in Mumbai at present, however, poor quality of construction adopted by developers increase the number of building collapse incidents in the city.

High rise structures generally surpass the limits of low income groups of India. It is due to this reason that south Mumbai has witnessed a declining rate of buyers for high rises. In accordance to that the authorities are transforming the slums into a habitable place to meet the growing demands. Market statistics confirm that more than 60 percent of the population of the city dwells in slums

The main reason for the buildings collapse in Mumbai is because of violation of the norms set by the government. Such violation has been on an increase and has resulted in numerous building collapse in the last few quarters. Civic authorities should keep a tab on the quality of construction and the materials utilized. Authorities should make sure that buildings constructed in Mumbai should adhere to the basic norms and do not turn out to be lethal liabilities.