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Terming stamp duties as a “big obstacle” in ensuring transparent transactions in real estate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday batted for reducing such levies to check the flow of black money in the sector.
Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja said in the Rajya Sabha the Real Estate (Regulation of Development) Bill is still being deliberated.
The cash strapped realty companies can have a breather in budget for 2011-12 as the Finance Minister is expected to make announcement of a guarantee corpus for banks on realty lending. Track2Realty has learnt that the banks will get this guarantee corpus of Rs. 1000 crore to lend for housing projects.
The housing and real estate sector in India witnessed foreign direct investment (FDI) of $2.8 billion in the fiscal year (April-March) 2009-10, according to Indian Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. The statistics made available to the media at the India Home property exhibition, which concluded in Dubai on Sunday, revealed that total NRI FDI inflows through the period April-December 2009-10 stood at $320.05 million.
Concerned over excessive flow of banking funds to the real estate sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said lenders will provide loans only up to 80 per cent of the cost of property. Following the RBI directive, a home buyer will necessarily have to arrange at least 20 per cent of the property value on his own before seeking loan from a bank.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has urged the real estate sector to be sensitive to the purchasing power of the poor while pricing their housing units. Speaking at the 10th national convention of the Confederation of Real Estate developers” Association of India (CREDAI) in New Delhi on Dec 16, Mukherjee also called for greater integrity in development, construction and marketing or real estate business.
While the foreign direct investment flows (FDI) dependent Indian realty market is awaiting a good fortune, a World Bank report brings cheer to the industry. It says the FDI into developing countries including India is expected to recover over the next couple of years and is projected to increase by 17 per cent in 2010.
The Mumbai realty market is awaiting a policy change by the Maharashtra Government that could appreciate the prices in South Mumbai, while soften up the market in the suburbs. Real estate prices in South Mumbai range between Rs 20,000 and Rs 1 lakh per sq ft, whereas the rates in the suburbs range between Rs 6,000 and Rs 40,000 per sq ft.
The Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry’s (MCHI) 14th India Realty Expo 2010 has expressed satisfaction over the non resident Indians (NRIs) keen interest. The MCHI said in a statement that many NRI couples were looking up and evaluating options and the Participating developers and banks have reported receiving “solid enquiries” and many expect deals to be closed.
In the wake of Adarsh society controversy the Mumbai government has suddenly woken up to the reality that they don’t have authentic records of land ownership and maps of many plots in one of the costliest addresses in India, South Mumbai. The state’s urban development department has written to the city collector, telling him to prepare records of ownership of land in Backbay and Nariman Point areas in south Mumbai.