Poor buying sentiments in the housing market of Ahmedabad seems to be pushing several large real-estate companies to explore business opportunities and diversify their risks in the tried and tested, ‘affordable,’ format of one-bedroom-hall-kitchen or 1 BHK.

Godrej Properties on Thursday announced their decision to build about 500 housing units in this format at the Godrej Garden City project, where the firm has been developing two and three BHK apartments that are currently priced over Rs 35 lakh and Rs 80 lakh respectively. Godrej will be offering a 600 square feet apartment at prices starting from Rs 16.5 lakh, a company official said.

One the top revenue earners for Godrej Properties, the Godrej Garden City project contributed revenues to the tune of Rs 49.1 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year. This is a substantial 40 per cent drop in revenues when compared to Rs 82.3 crore it earned from the project during the same period last year.

The decision to come up with 1 BHK housing units is seen as a move to bolster revenues in a market that has been stagnating since the last one year or so, say real estate experts.

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a global property consultant observes in its report on Affordable Housing, “During the demand slowdown in 2008–2009, residential developers realised that they had concentrated development portfolios in upper-mid- and luxury segments, where the market has become very competitive in the last decade due to the entry of new players. Affordable housing segment