By: Lalit Kumar Jain, CMD, KUL & CREDAI President
Track2Realty Exclusive: Compared to other countries in Asia, India still lags behind on the transparency parameter. But we are increasingly scaling up with the data availability for the retail and residential sectors improving across all tiers led by the fast-paced development of the residential sector and modern retail formats.
Appropriate indices to measure market fundamentals and performance is a key indicator of market transparency. There is an absence of national indices on the real estate sector due to the lack of market data.
Some international property consultants, online real estate portals and government authorities have started providing real estate market data, which is improving this facet of real estate transparency.
We are determined to turn India into an investment haven but for that the government must facilitate us with policy inventive. CREDAI reiterates its long standing demand for a Single Window clearance system. Even McKinsey has said in its report to the Government of India that delays in approval processes alone increase sale value of houses by 40 per cent.
Delays due to multi clearances/approvals numbering over 40 by various Agencies/Departments of the government – the average time being 18 months – are the order of the day though most of the departments have the same series of check lists. This obviously leads to duplication of submission by architects. In fact, the number of building plans sanctioned over the past ten to fifteen months has drastically come down.
The only way forward for a clean and cost effective housing sector is an e-based standardization of single window approval process. CREDAI has submitted a Single Window Act for consideration to Ministry of Housing (HUPA) and Ministry of Urban Development. However, there has been no progress at all.
In a practical case, various Central and State Government Departments are issuing directives in isolation. For instance, the Environment Ministry issued Building Approval guidelines authorising its Committees to link the height of a building to its distance from a Fire Station, though the Ministry is neither the technical nor the administrative head of Fire Safety issues. Such arbitrary exercise of power by MoEF has crippled the sector due to approval delays, adding to costs.
….to be continued
