Track2Realty-Agencies: The Finance Ministry has expressed the view that the Reserve Bank should allow real estate companies and broking firms to set up banks as adequate safeguards will be there to prevent exposure of promoters to related entities.
Track2Realty-JLLI: Recently, the annual GDP number (6.5% GDP growth during FY April 2011-March 2012) released by the Reserve Bank of India resulted in a negative sentiment throughout the real estate industry. Consistent with this, in 1H12, the demand for commercial real estate moderated on the back of office occupiers that remained cautious about their expansion plans.
The Finance Ministry will meet chief executives of leading banks today, Sep 17, to discuss credit flow to the real estate and housing sectors. According to sources D K Mittal, Secretary of Financial Services, will chair the meeting of bankers, which will take stock of credit flow to the sensitive sectors.
Banking institutions have cut down on their lending to the real estate sector, according to a report put out on Wednesday by real estate consulting firm Knight Frank India.
Fitch Ratings says in a new report that the Rating Outlook for the Indian real estate sector continues to be Negative for H212, due to persistent sluggish demand, high construction costs and liquidity pressures.
The Indian banks have been hit the worst with the downturn of the real estate sector. Even after restructuring the loans to the developers, they have a collective deficit of Rs. 7 lakh crore. With spiraling input costs & property prices, demand in the real estate sector has been on a steady downfall. Given the declining demand, it is is unlikely that the real estate companies will be able to repay their bank loans, especially since banks are the only source of funds for the sector.
With interest rates remaining high and real estate prices rising further, the growth in housing loans declined to 12.1 per cent in fiscal 2011-12 from 15 per cent in the previous year. The growth rate in non-food bank credit was also down at 17 per cent during the year as compared with 20.6 per cent in the previous year, the Reserve Bank of India said.
Terming RBI’s decision to reduce cash reserve ratio (CRR) as a “positive step”, the industry body Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association (CREDAI) said on Friday, march 9, the move would enable financial institutions to fund real estate projects.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday came hard on banks for overstating realisable value of real estate properties they finance by including charges such as stamp duty and other levies.
Fitch Ratings’ outlook for 2012 for the Indian real estate sector is negative due to weak overall demand and higher construction costs, which are likely to continue to squeeze margins.