Tata, fresh from launching the world's cheapest car, is turning its sights on the housing market. The Indian company plans to build 1,000 tiny apartments outside Mumbai that will sell for $7,800 to $13,400 each, BusinessWeek reports.
That may sounds astoundingly cheap to those of us used to the UAE's stratospheric housing prices, but BusinessWeek points out that these ultracheap digs are not even affordable for the country's middle class.
"They are targeted at folks earning an annual salary of $6,000 to $10,000," BusinessWeek writes. "The average call center employee with 10 to 20 years experience earns 320,000 rupees or about $6,400 a year."
Still, it's heartening to see a company trying to fill in the vast gap between Mumbai's rich, who often pay more than New Yorkers for their flats, and and the poor that Slumdog Millionare made famous.