The Secretary, Banking, Ministry of Finance has agreed to look into the problems being faced by the real estate industry and work towards reducing the cost of funding through banks and financial institutions.
The US Government has hired property consultancy Knight Frank to assess the valuation and strategic review of all its real estate properties in India. The properties, which house embassies, consulates, offices, residences, schools and libraries at prime locations across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata, were acquired over the years and are estimated to be approximately worth thousands of crores.
After Track2Realty reported that how real estate developers are blatantly violating the ban on pre-launch schemes as advised by the Supreme Court, the Haryana Government has now decided to crack down against the erring realty companies. Many established realty companies and new players in the fray are illegally offering residential projects before acquiring the required license, and in some cases, even without a land in blatant violation of warnings by the authority.
Spiraling property prices and slump in home sales have forced the Union Housing Ministry to think out-of-the-box solutions. After the decision to set up a high-level committee to recommend policy interventions to facilitate creation of rental housing stocks, the ministry has now sought views from private developers and builders to evolve a strategy for reducing the time taken in approval of real estate projects that can help bring down the cost of houses.
In view of the ever increasing housing shortage in cities and towns, the Union Ministry for Housing & Poverty Alleviation has decided to set up a high-level committee to recommend policy interventions to facilitate creation of rental housing stocks to cater to those who cannot afford to buy houses. The decision comes after several rounds of representation by the industry bodies, CREDAI & NAREDCO.
A White Paper on black money tabled in Parliament on Monday, May 21, has named real estate among others as most vulnerable to menace of black money. Given that land is part of the top black money generators, the white paper suggested that states could consider taxing farm income to curb black money.
When the Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed home buyers to withhold 1% of the sale consideration as Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), it became a free-for-all kind of football match with developers and property consultants alleging that it could encourage black money component in real estate, while tax consultants believed otherwise and pointed out that the reach of the banking sector in rural area makes it easier to detect unsavoury deals.
Sachin Sandhir: When the Government talks about affordable housing and expects the developers to do affordable housing, it is a misnomer because the Government is the first perpetuator of price escalation by auctioning the land to the highest bidder. Then to expect the developer to not make a profit of 50-60 per cent or whatever his expectation, is unrealistic.
The much talked about and widely anticipated Real Estate Regulation and Development Bill may not get cleared in the current Budget Session of Parliament, since the government is getting cold in the wake of the Union Government running into opposition from the states on a host of issues, including the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre and Lokpal Bill.
While the government is trying to regulate the developers with provisions of penalty and up to imprisonment, the developers in Maharashtra have decided expose the policy paralysis through RTI route.