Seeking to facilitate visit by prospective buyers to different DDA flats being offered as part of its new housing scheme, the urban body has deputed dedicated representatives at various project sites to guide the visitors.

The DDA 2017 housing scheme rolled out on June 30 by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu offers 12,000 flats across four income categories.

The flats are spread across Rohini, Dwarka, Narela, Vasant Kunj, Jasola, Pitampura, Paschim Vihar and Siraspur.

“Prospective buyers can visit the flats. They can come and have a look at the facilities. And to facilitate their visits, we have deputed representatives at various flat sites, who will guide people, who are interested in applying for the DDA scheme,” a senior DDA official told PTI.

When asked, which areas are getting more visitors, he only said, as of now, “only three-four housing sites are being visited by prospective buyers”. He, however, did not mention the name of those sites.

Of the 12,000 flats, around 10,000 unoccupied flats are from the 2014 housing scheme, while 2,000 flats have been lying vacant.

The move by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to allow and facilitate visit to flats is apparently to make people comfortable about the features of the flats and the facilities being offered.

The draw of lots is slated to be conducted in the first week of November which would be streamed online. The last date for submitting applications is August 11.

The price of flats range from close to Rs 7 lakh to over Rs 1.26 crore.

The four categories of houses are — HIG with 87 flats ranging from Rs 53.52 lakh to Rs 126.81 lakh; MIG with 404 flats ranging from Rs 31.32 lakh to Rs 93.95 lakh; LIG/one-bed room flats numbering 11,197 and ranging from Rs 14.50 lakh to Rs 30.30 lakh; and 384 Janta flats ranging from Rs 7.07 lakh to Rs 12.76 lakh.

The urban body has tied up with 10 banks for the sale of application forms and scheme-related transactions.

Seeking to deter “unserious buyers” and check market speculation, the DDA this time has proposed multi-tiered penal measures.

“If a prospective buyer surrenders his application before the date of draws, no money will be deducted from his or her registration fee. If a buyer does so after the draw but before the issue of a demand letter, 25 per cent of the registration fee will be forfeited,” another official had earlier said.

If the flat is surrendered within 90 days of the issue of the demand letter, 50 per cent of the fee would be cut.

“Beyond that time period, the entire registration fee will be forfeited,” he said.

For the LIG (Lower Income Group) category, the registration fee will be Rs 1 lakh while for Middle Income Group and High Income Group flats, Rs 2 lakh will be charged.

“People are free to visit the areas where the flats are being offered. We have also removed the lock-in period clause, as we realised this was also a factor in buyers surrendering flats. This is also to keep a check on those elements who do market speculation,” the official said.

Under the rules, a husband and a wife can apply for the scheme but if both get an allotment, one of them will have to give it up.

The application form costing Rs 200 can be purchased from various partnering banks or Vikas Sadan.

The 2014 scheme offered 25,040 flats across categories, with prices ranging between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 1.2 crore. The online response was so massive that the DDA's official website crashed soon after the launch.

The one-bedroom flats were offered in Dwarka, Rohini, Narela and Siraspur areas.