In a dramatic twist of fate, Shyam Kumar Naina received the house he booked in Navi Mumbai last Dussehra, free of cost, after the developer crossed the milestone of selling 100,000 homes across India.
For Naina, a professional from Nerul, buying a house had long been a carefully planned milestone. For nearly four years, he had been budgeting, comparing projects and calculating loan options, determined to buy an apartment within his ₹60–70 lakh budget.
What he could not have anticipated was that life would deliver something far beyond his imagination: a home that would come to him entirely free of cost.
In a gesture marking a major milestone, Godrej Properties gifted an apartment to the Naina family recently after the developer crossed the landmark of selling 100,000 homes across India.
Naina and his wife Priyanka, along with their children, received the apartment at Godrej City Panvel, a sprawling township project on the outskirts of Mumbai.
The gesture forms part of the developer’s celebratory campaign titled ‘Laakhon Mein Ek,’ launched to commemorate the company reaching its 100,000th homebuyer. According to the developer, the Naina family was selected from existing customers through an internal process as a token of appreciation, rather than through a public contest or lottery.
‘Until now, I had never received anything free, not even worth ₹100. This was a surprise’
For the Nainas, what began as years of cautious financial planning suddenly turned into a moment that felt almost surreal: the dream of owning a home arrived not through decades of repayment but as an unexpected ‘gift.’
The surprise came after nearly a decade of saving and planning. Naina had been actively looking to purchase a home for the past four to five years. During Dussehra last year, he finalised an under-construction apartment in Panvel and booked it with an initial payment of ₹25,000, he told Hindustan Times Real Estate.
He later secured a home loan of around ₹70 lakh from a financial institution, with EMIs beginning in February. Possession of the apartment is scheduled for 2030.
“I planned to repay nearly 50% of the loan before possession,” Naina said. “Managing finances felt like walking a tightrope. This gift has brought enormous relief.”
The family was invited to an event at the project site in Panvel, which they believed was a routine meet-and-greet with senior management to mark the company reaching one lakh customers. Initially told that several families would attend, Naina arrived at the venue to find himself alone.
What followed was an elaborate reveal.
“They brought a surprise gift wrapped in three layers and asked me to guess what it could be,” he recalled. “I guessed things like a washing machine.”
When the final layer was opened, it revealed a large symbolic key to the apartment.
“They told me the flat was mine, completely free. At first, I thought it was a joke. I kept asking if it was fully free or partly free,” Naina said. “It took time for the news to sink in.”
Soon after, the family’s phones began ringing incessantly as friends and relatives saw the news circulating on social media.
“Till date, I had never received anything free, not even worth ₹100,” he said with a laugh. “This was completely unbelievable.”
For the Naina family, the unexpected windfall has brought not just joy but also financial breathing space.
“With the savings now, I can focus more on my son’s education and maybe even think about buying a car,” Naina said. “What we had planned to achieve over the next five years has suddenly been accomplished.”
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For a man who had spent years carefully planning every rupee toward owning a home, the moment marked an extraordinary ‘turning point,’ one where the dream of a house of his own arrived five years sooner, and far more dramatically, than he ever imagined.
