Mumbai: BMC hikes rent for tenants of civic body owned buildings

Mumbai: The BMC has taken a decision to hike the rents for tenants living in civic owned buildings. The tenants residing in thousands of such buildings will have to pay the monthly rent of Rs 700 hereafter.

However, Ravi Raja, the former opposition leader of the BMC, alleged that sudden hike will be unjust to residents who fall in the low-income group bracket. He has written a letter to Chief minister Eknath Shinde and has requested to give a stay order to the BMC circular.

The BMC owns 3,505 buildings largely in South Mumbai with over 46,000 tenants residing in them. This includes both commercial and residential properties. The erstwhile Bombay Improvement Trust was dissolved into BMC in 1925, and the buildings came to be owned by the civic body.

Some were abandoned properties after the Partition while some were specifically constructed for affordable housing. The civic body then rented out several properties at minimal rent. The civic body had first increased the rent in 1955, then in 1998 and then in 2014. However, despite being hiked three times to date, at present, the rent from residential tenants is around Rs 100 per month.

The BMC had now decided to increase the rent to Rs 3 per sqft. The tenants will now have to pay Rs 600 to Rs 700 per month. The rent will also increase every year by 5 percent per sq. ft. said the civic circular first issued in May 2021.

The civic body will now implement the earlier circular. In case a tenant wants to sell the property, he would need the no-objection certificate of the landowner (BMC) and pay a certain share of the transaction to the civic body as well. According to Ravi Raja, the tenants will have to pay almost crores of rupees for it, as the ready reckoner rate in the city area is high.

Published on: Friday, September 09, 2022, 09:20 AM IST