After a two hour train journey from Dadar station and a rickety ride in a private white shuttle van I was finally standing in front a construction site, picturesquely located in the middle of peri-urban hills and a dried river bed that allegedly recharges every monsoon. Not a place I expected to see human habitation, let alone full scale construction activity. I couldn’t make up my mind if this 1200 unit apartment complex was angling investors looking for holiday homes or was it a serious attempt at low income housing development (LIH). After all who in the world would spend 2 hours everyday to travel to a 350 sq foot, one room kitchen apartment in Neral… No matter what the view.

I had just started working at the The Monitor Group and as a part of its “State of the Market Study” had had gone looking for market built, low…