Tata, an Indian company, is planning to launch in the market this year prefabricated modulus units of 20 square metres at 500 € each, the price of an iPod. Some superior ones of 30 square metres are priced at 700 €. This is meant to ease somewhat the very serious deficit of housing of 146 million dwellings. They are the cheapest houses in the entire world. The firm is also the same one that produced the most affordable car in the market of vehicles, the Tata Nano.
These houses, in the form of prefabricated units sold in a kit, with roof/ceiling, walls, windows and doors, available at the end of this year. The company has copied the style of the famous and well established Swedish company Ikea, only that instead of mounting your own furniture, you put together the structure of a house.
The material used for the construction of these low-cost modulus are ecological, like fiber of coconut and jute (strong fiber from an East Indian plant normally used to make sacking and cordage), and is estimated to have a life of 20 years. Like the Nano, one can acquire better equipped designs. In accordance with the pilot testing to adapt the product to the necessities, the balcony is the favourite accessory, followed by the option of roof with solar panels. The local papers call it the 'house of the village' aimed at the millions of people in India that live in poverty, especially in the rural areas. Most of them still live in houses constructed with mud and straw. For the moment, these houses are being tested in 30 locations in West Bengala, and later in the rest of the country.
There exists however, a great fear that the new product might end up being converted in 2nd residences of the people with plenty of money! Just like the Nano 3 years ago. They were built as solution of mobility for the middle and low income families but most ended up being the 2nd or 3rd vehicle of the rich.
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