Ravi Sinha: I welcome all the panelists in this roundtable discussion. We are organizing the brain storming session for our inaugural yearly Handbook Focus 2012. This is the second of the series after the 1st discussion in Mumbai on “Funding Gap in Real Estate.”
It is a highly disappointing budget. The Finance Minister has miserably failed in highlighting the importance the role of Housing in economy, employment generation, apart from the very need of housing. The announcements on ECB for affordable housing is a minor respite but still meaningless.
When the Reserve bank of India was announcing the CRR rate cut by 50 base points, the house wife Sugnadha Dubey, glued to TV news channels, couldn’t resist the temptation to call up her husband to know whether the EMI burden on this middle class home owner is going to ease out from next month. With no background of the world of financial jargon, her husband could only assure her with a wishful thinking.
I don’t see any reason why there has been a general perception that the role of the government is to provide low cost housing unlike private developers.
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Absalon Project, a joint venture between affiliates of VP Securities and Soros Fund Management, have launched a feasibility study for a mortgage system in the UAE, based on the principles of the Danish Mortgage Model.
Kumari Selja, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation & Minister of Tourism, has categorically blamed the banks for not facilitating the affordable housing. Inaugurating the 10th National Convention of National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) at New Delhi the minister said the housing finance sector has witnessed a boom in the recent past due to favorable government policies.