See that shack above? It’s located in the Dharavi neighborhood of Mumbai and has faulty electrical lines, no water supply, barely any sewage system, it floods during heavy rains, has only one room with barely any furnishings, the neighborhood is filled with mud and stinking trash, and yet the property is valued at ~$24,000.
Things are even more surprising in other slums, though, where “shanties as small as 120 square feet, located on the 90 Foot Road (photo below) [...] are as expensive as $93,000.” And some of those shanties don’t even have their own toilets, instead sharing a common toilet facility with hundreds of other people!
But wait, that’s not all! Apparently people are prepared to pay those high prices despite the fact that many shack sellers don’t even officially own the land under their shanties!
The reason for the crazy prices, however, is simple:
“We can reach Colaba in less than an hour, people would kill to be in a place like this,” said Sundar, a slum dweller who lives near the 60 Foot Road intersection in Malad East. “There are four local train stations close by. And the bus stop is a stone’s throw away,” he said.
I bet none of those shanty dwellers expected their homes to ever skyrocket in price.
