61 Applicants Vie For Every Home as MHADA Pune Lottery Sees Record Response
Pune, 11th November 2026: The registration and application submission process for the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s (MHADA) Pune Board lottery for 4,462 homes has concluded, with the scheme receiving a record response of 2,74,068 applications accompanied by earnest money deposits.
A total of 3,25,077 applications were submitted for the 4,462 homes, of which 2,74,068 applicants paid the mandatory earnest money deposit to become eligible for the lottery. This translates into an average of 61 applicants competing for each home, making it the highest-ever response received by the Pune Board for a housing lottery.
Officials said the response was significantly higher than anticipated. In the previous lotteries, the Pune Board had received a maximum of around 2.25 lakh applications accompanied by earnest money deposits. This time, the number has increased to nearly 2.75 lakh.
The registration and application submission process for the homes offered under the 15% integrated housing scheme and 20% comprehensive housing scheme began on August 24. However, the board extended the deadline three times due to technical difficulties during the application process.
Between October 16 and 20, the MahaIT system remained unavailable due to technical reasons, bringing the verification of applicants’ documents to a halt. Consequently, the board granted a third extension to complete the pre-lottery process. The registration and application submission process finally concluded on October 30.
Following the closure of the application window, the Pune Board completed the pending document verification and announced the final number of applications received, including those accompanied by earnest money deposits.
Officials said the applications would now be scrutinised, following which the final list of eligible applicants would be published. Since only a small number of applications are generally rejected during scrutiny, nearly 2.74 lakh applicants are expected to participate in the lottery.
The draw for the 4,462 homes is scheduled to be held on December 1. Applicants are now awaiting the draw to find out who among the nearly 2.75 lakh eligible participants will secure a home.
The homes offered under the lottery fall under the economically weaker section (EWS) and low-income group (LIG) categories. MHADA has fixed an earnest money deposit of Rs 15,000 for EWS homes and Rs 20,000 for LIG homes. An additional application fee of Rs 708 was charged from each applicant.
According to officials, the Pune Board has collected approximately Rs 567.54 crore through earnest money deposits and application fees. The deposits of unsuccessful applicants will be refunded after the December 1 draw, excluding the non-refundable application fee of Rs 708.
