Track2Realty: Raising alarm over Mumbai and Maharashtra becoming increasingly “investor unfriendly”, developers apex body CREDAI has said the State Government’s policies will end up being its gift to Gujarat’s upcoming Gift City.
CREDAI National President Lalit Kumar Jain, who is also a leading developer in Mumbai and Pune, criticised the series of policies by the State government culminating in the recent proposal to hike land lease rates and said these do not encourage investors at all. “Gone are the days when investors from within the State and outside would plan increased involvement here. Now for quite some time, investors are looking outside Maharashtra,” he said.
Quoting a latest report by Cushman & Wakefield, Jain pointed out that among the ten cities that the real estate consultancy has surveyed, Ahmedabad emerged top, inviting a whopping 39% of investments made across these cities. As per the report, Ahmedabad saw about Rs 71,270 crore investments in various sectors including real estate and infrastructure.
“We have every reason to believe that investors are shying away from Mumbai. Real estate has become a costly affair here thanks to the government’s unsupportive policies like premium on fungible FSI, restrictions on land use, increasing property tax and now the hike in land lease rates,” he said. Cushman & Wakefield said in its just released report on ‘Top 10 Emerging Business Destinations in India’ that in the last two years the volume of investment by various companies in these 10 cities – Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Kochi, Indore, Nagpur, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam – had increased by over seven times.
Real estate is the prime necessity of any businessman – be it to run a consultancy or set up plants – and if the cost of running business becomes prohibitive, one looks for alternatives. “And Gujarat is in an hour flight away from Mumbai that is bound to cause this capital flight,” too he said. Feedback with CREDAI from across the developer community is that things are not that good here in Mumbai. After a gap of over two years it is only now that the buildings plans are being approved selectively. We face red-tapism everywhere and despite even the government and officials admitting the need for a single window system of approvals, it is yet to be implemented.
On the contrary, the approval system in Gujarat is very fast, Mr Jain said quoting developers from there. “So much so, unlike in Mumbai, developers in Gujarat do not have to run around for approvals. They CC (commencement certificates) hand delivered. The State has team of IAS officers manning call centres for the government and the CM monitors all,” Jain said praising Narendra Modi’s efficient functioning.
Narendra Modi’s government is developing Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) as a Global Finance Hub near Ahmadabad. GIFT city aspires to cater to India’s large financial services potential by offering global firms a world-class infrastructure and facilities. It aims to attract the top talent in the country by providing the finest quality of life all with integrated townships, IFSC and multi specialty special economic zone (SEZ).
Jain said even Punjab and Bihar are becoming investor friendly and States like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand are planning single-window clearances.
“We, the developer community, sincerely hope that Maharashtra Government wakes up to the reality and starts taking immediate corrective measures, and we are always ready to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the government,” he added.
