They showed that slump or no slump, there still exists a huge demand for houses if the price is right. MHADA sold in a day 88,222 forms, over 20 times the 3,863 flats available. The flats will be sold through lottery among various economic categories.

So enthused was MHADA that officials restricted themselves to giving only one form to each applicant. People had queued up from 7 am, much before banks opened. Serpentine queues formed across branches and minor skirmishes were reported from a few.

The longest queues formed at HDFC Bank’s Matunga branch, from where about 5,600 forms were sold out. “The queue at the Goregaon branch stretched up to Jogeswari. Seeing the long queue I decided to go back home and return another day,” said Prashant Ashar, who hopes to try his luck with flats for the middle-income and high-income groups in Goregaon.

“We had kept 5000 forms at each branch. However, looking at the response we will now stock about 10,000 at each,” said HK Javale, chief officer of MHADA’s Mumbai Board.

The distribution of flats took a political turn with the Shiv Sena picking it up. In an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamna, the party said the flats should be allotted to the Marathi manoos, who is being forced out of the city as housing has become unaffordable.