The issues that were discussed include — will there ever be an affordable housing? will there be a decrease in land costs? and who are the people who will benefit from affordable housing?

Stressing on filling the demand-supply gap, the Mayor said that a survey of affordable housing needs to be carried out and re-development of the old city too needs to be studied.

While Matkari, who hosted the conference, said that the purpose of this seminar was that we wanted to look into the reasons for why a common person was not able to buy a house even in times of recession and why the recession has not affected the price rates in the housing sector. Matkari said that there should be a pressure group to address the issue of housing.

The builders fraternity, represented by Ajit Marathe, SR Kulkarni, Hemant Naik Navare, Lalitkumar Jain and Suresh Haware, talked about the increasing demand and supply gap and the need to implement the development plan.

Haware, who has floated an affordable housing project worth 5.5 lakh to 12.5 lakh in Navi Mumbai and Thane, urged the builders to cut down their profits to provide affordable housing. “Builders can make that extra effort,’’ he said urging the builders to address the issue of the people.