Is your redevelopment offer actually fair?

By Parish Rao · 1 September 2026 · 6 minute read

A developer presents to your society with slides full of extra square feet, a corpus amount and rent during construction. It sounds generous. Whether it actually is depends on arithmetic almost nobody in the room has done.

What is really being exchanged

Members are handing over something valuable: their existing flats and, more importantly, the development rights of the land underneath.

In return they receive a package. A larger flat in a new building, a corpus payment, rent while displaced, and sometimes a hardship allowance.

The only honest question is whether what you receive is worth what you surrender. That is a valuation question, and it is answerable.

Why the offer is hard to judge

Because the components are not comparable to each other. Extra area arrives in three years. Corpus arrives partly now. Rent arrives monthly during construction. Each has a different value today.

Developers naturally present the headline that sounds best, usually the percentage of extra area. Members compare that percentage against what a neighbouring society got, which tells them almost nothing, because the land, the permitted development and the market are all different.

What a proper assessment does

• Values what you have. Your existing flat, and the land's development potential.
• Values what you are offered. The new flat at realistic post completion rates, not the developer's projection.
• Brings future items to today. Area received in three years is not worth the same as area received now.
• Checks the rent honestly. Against what comparable accommodation nearby actually costs, for the realistic construction period rather than the promised one.
• Counts what you lose. Moving twice, disruption, and the risk of delay.

The output is a single comparable number, which is what a society committee actually needs to negotiate.

Where members get hurt

Consistently in the same places. Rent set at a figure that will not house the family in the same area. A construction period that everyone privately expects to be exceeded, with no protection if it is. Corpus that looks large until you notice it is paid in instalments across years. Carpet and built up areas quoted inconsistently between documents.

None of these are hidden. They are simply not converted into rupees, so nobody weighs them.

When it becomes a dispute

Redevelopment disputes reach court regularly, usually between a majority and a dissenting minority, or between the society and the developer over delivery.

Then the same evidence based valuation is what the court works from, prepared to survive cross examination as covered in what makes a valuation hold up in court. Where the property is tenanted or held on pagdi terms, see also valuing property with tenants.

What societies should do

Get an independent assessment before signing anything, commissioned by the society rather than by the developer. Split across members it costs very little each, and it is the only way the committee can negotiate from facts.

This is common work for us in Mumbai and Pune. See our Mumbai litigation page, or have your committee call us.