TN housing board to rent out unsold flats, looks at land pooling and joint ventures

CHENNAI: In a move to utilise unsold flats built by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board, the State Housing and Urban Development Department has decided to rent out such properties.

S Muthusamy, the minister handling the portfolio, informed this while talking to reporters on Friday. Muthusamy said that around 5,000 apartments and houses constructed by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) remain unsold. "We have rented out unsold apartments in KK Nagar TNHB project. We will wait for some time for the 5,000 units to be sold. If they remain unsold, we will rent them out like the KK Nagar project," he added.

The minister justified the department's decision to release more than 2,002 acres of land notified for acquisition by TNHB, dating back three to four decades. He said the land parcels remained unused and in several cases, the TNHB had issued acquisition notices to the land owners but failed to move forward by awarding compensation or officially taking over. Owners of such properties were facing difficulties as they could not sell their properties, the minister said.

"Around 18,000 acres of land across the state will be released. For the properties, where compensation awards were given, we will collect the award and other expenses from the owners. Moreover, if the unused land is encroached upon and houses are built, we will collect the property value and hand over the land," he said.

Instead of acquiring the unused land for its projects, the board in future would resort to land pooling method or joint ventures with the land owners, Muthusamy added.