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.
Pranay Vakil: The problem is when having sanctioned the loan, there is no fear of revoking it. You can change your mind because these funds are kind of committed. When engage Shapoorji Pallonji or L&T to execute a project, you enter into a contract and you say that this is how we are going to make payments. Suddenly, if you are to switch off the tap, it is going to cause a lot of embarrassment to the developer.
Launching its multi-pronged strategy to focus attention on the real estate industry’s unending series of problems, CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India) has decided to send an ‘SOS’ to the Prime Minister and planned for a nationwide developers strike to sensitize the policy makers.
Atul Modak: Why did bankers’ lobby not block the mutual funds then?
Pranay Vakil: Because the mutual funds lobby is larger than the bankers’ lobby. They could not do anything about it. The companies into mutual funds are so large, they might just foray into banking.
The real estate sector in Bangalore has grown to a large extent in the past one year. In the year ahead, the city’s realty is expected to grow by 25 per cent, estimates the Karnataka Chapter of the Consortium of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI).
Pranay Vakil: Kruti can you give some examples of innovative funding for the benefit of the panel? It is just to prove a point about how innovative that funding has been.
It has been strangely characteristic for the real estate and construction industry in India to remain unregulated and unrecognized, even though it is one of the largest employers and contributors to national growth.
Kruti Jain: I believe any funding available in real estate is gap funding. It is not about only the gap which is there in funding for real estate because what happens for other industries is that they have this reserve capital which is not their land or raw material, but is the actual capital they put in to manufacture xyz product and then they replenish the funds with whatever returns are accrued.
If only the secondary market was any indicator of real estate growth, the argument that that the real estate market is turning bearish in Chandigarh would have been true. But while the prices have softened a bit in the city, the beneficiary is the periphery of Chandigarh that makes the overall property market in the city very bullish and overall economy vibrant.
Sunil Dahiya: Pranay, the most important thing is the background of the investor from the developer’s perspective. My understanding may be a little limited because I come form the Delhi NCR market and as you know, it is a very localized subject. But being in the governing council of NAREDCO at the national level, where Knight Frank is knowledge partner, one of the presentations that we had in 2008 with the idea that where the industry has lost its bearing and funding was the main agenda.