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.
After the Convention of confederation of real estate developers’ association of India (CREDAI) where the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee urged the realty sector to be poor sensitive, it seems the affordable housing is the buzz word now. National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), the apex body for real estate and housing sectors under the aegis of Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, also announced that its convention is aimed at realizing the “Housing for All” call of Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Over-supply has been oft-repeated blame game for slow property absorption across the country. However, in most of the cases this over-supply is a misunderstood term. In a country where the housing shortage is huge, any mention of over-supply is misleading in the first place. In most of the property markets, it is the demand & supply mismatch which is termed as over-supply.
Track2Realty Exclusive: With a vision to make India a housing surplus nation from being the housing shortage country, CREDAI has been campaigning to make the business environment congenial for growth. But the realty bill, in its current form and shape, stifles the honest developer and scares away new entrepreneurs from entering the sector.
Track2Realty: Although the Interim Budget announcement supporting affordable housing was welcomed by the real estate industry, the segment has a long way ahead as yet. To begin with, there is considerable supply shortage in this arena—pegged at 18.78 million for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012–2017) by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry (HUPA), of which 96% is in the EWS and LIG categories. Housing shortage for the EWS stands at almost 11 million homes, while that for LIG stands at 7.41 million homes.
Track2Realty: When the Reserve Bank of India made the announcement of allowing External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) in affordable housing, including slum redevelopment, there was an optimism and euphoria that cheaper money coming into the much-needed segment of real estate would redefine the property market in general and in the process help the country meet the housing shortage.
Track2Realty: India faces shortage of fresh supply of houses, the Technical Group on the Estimation of Housing Shortage projects the total shortage of dwelling units in urban areas in 2012 to be 18.78 million, said a report by Knight Frank Research.
At a time when there is a mad rush to launch new projects in & around the airports across the cities of India, a developer in Bengaluru opted to go in the diametrically opposite direction. Prima facie, what appeared to be a case of finding a better or affordable land parcel in that given location of South-West Bengaluru had a strategy that very few adopt in the business of Indian real estate. The strategy to define demand through scientific research. The demand in the market was assessed with consumer psychograph study – what consumers want; what they need; where are the gaps; and how a new housing project could fill in that gap.
PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana) is once again in the news after the Union Budget 2023-24. But a project that should have been seen as a mission is in the news for some wrong reasons. It’s not just the fact that the Government of India has not clarified its achievements with Housing for All by 2022, but Track2Realty finds there are data discrepancies with the project as well.
Construction for 4.9 million units has begun and 2.6 million units of which have been completed. Given the past trend, additional 1.64 million houses are likely to be sanctioned by December 2019, making it highly possible to achieve the 10 million houses target by 2022. Projected subsidy disbursement over next 3 year for the same is projected to INR 1 trillion.