As battle lines are drawn for the control of India’s richest civic body- Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) set to go to polls on January 15, real estate and housing remain one of the major poll planks with warring parties offering various property-related sops. 

Vinod Behl

In their joint poll manifesto called “Promissory Note”, Uddhav Thackeray headed Shiv Sena (UBT) and Raj Thackeray headed MNS made a major announcement to build 5 lakh affordable homes in 5 years for government employees, staff of BMC and BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply & Transport), besides mill workers .Their joint manifesto also mentioned about setting up a dedicated housing authority  under BMCand reserving land for the residents for this purpose.For homes up to 700 sq ft size, property tax waiver was announced.  Under  housing redevelopment , the two parties have promised a sop in the form of one free parking slot for each slot.  

The congress party in its poll manifesto, has promised to tone up urban planning, ramp up Mumbai’s water supply capacity and control construction-related pollution. The manifesto also mentions the party’s opposition to commercial development or sale of BEST as it focuses on the revival of BEST.

Aam Aadmi Party which will be contesting the poll on the plank of ‘Politics of Work’, has made several infrastructure-related promises. These include revamping of roads, free drinking water, free power up to 200 units under ‘Kejriwal ki Guarantee’.

The BJP-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra has already  adopted a comprehensive approach to address the state’s diverse housing needs  by ramping up affordable housing, boosting rental housing , redeveloping slums and promoting integrated urban infrastructure.   with the help of key development agencies like CIDCO, MMRDA, MHADA and  by taking advantage of subsidies under PMAY.  Under its Maharashtra Housing Policy 2025, it is focusing on quality living, redevelopment, stalled projects and PPPs to benefit economically weaker sections, besides LIG and MIG groups. It has set an ambitious target to build 35 lakh affordable houses by 20-30 under ‘Majhe Ghar, Majha adhikar’ (My house, My right’ scheme), creating a dedicated land bank for residential use  by 2026  and reserving 10-30% MIDC land for housing near workplaces

In early 2025, the Maharashtra government had announced a 8.5% interest waiver on the premium of self redevelopment projects in Mumbai. Further, in a boost to redevelopment in western suburbs, Fadnavis government launched a scheme for Mumbai’s restricted areas. In December last, a new scheme was announced with free FSI and TDR to unlock stalled housing and redevelopment of Mumbai’s western suburbs. The state government is establishing a dedicated cell with INR 2000 crore budget for cooperative housing societies, streamlining slums and undertaking redevelopment with an overall vision of Slum Free Maharashtra towards Housing For All.

The key real estate industry bodies like Credai, Naredco, BAi, , Credai-MCHI, will be closely eyeing the outcome of upcoming BMC polls, which will have a major bearing on the housing policies and real estate regulations which in turn will impact the premier  real estate market of Mumbai.