Hardeep Puri, Anshuman Magazine, and Anil Saraf.
NEW DELHI: Housing & Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has informed a gathering from the real estate sector that the Central Government is working with the States for an effective RERA.
Puri was speaking at the “Realty 2018” organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Delhi today. This was the 15th edition in this series and was organised with the theme “Real Estate: Challenges to Opportunities”.
In his inaugural address, Shri Puri mentioned that the Government faced many challenges while enacting RERA. There were vested interests that filed law suits to get it struck down and after RERA got enacted, these set of people are complaining about slow implementation of RERA, added Shri Puri.
Highlighting the spirit behind RERA, Puri mentioned that the Act attempts to balance the interests of the consumers and the developers by imposing clear responsibilities on both; establishing symmetry of information between the promoter and the purchaser; introducing transparency of contractual conditions; setting minimum standards of accountability; and fast tracking dispute resolution mechanism.
He further emphasized on the other housing initiatives taken by the Government viz. lowering GST rates for affordable housing; providing relief under Section 80 IBA; higher carpet area for leveraging CLSS for MIG; providing Infrastructure status for affordable housing; and higher budgetry allocations for housing sector amongst other measures taken for the growth of the sector.
In his welcome address,Anshuman Magazine, Chairman, CII Realty 2018 & Chair, CII National Committee on Housing & Real Estate & Chairman, India & South East Asia, CBRE said that along with the industry’s focus on expanding its terrain, the government’s efforts towards building capacities and improving infrastructure have inspired greater operational efficiency across the country. He added that through initiatives such as RERA, REITs, Ease of Doing Business, Housing for All, the industry has witnessed the much needed transparency across the realty value chain, enabling a ripple effect on capital inflows.
Anil Saraf, Co-Chairman, CII Realty 2018 & CMD, ASF Group mentioned that key policy transformations such as RERA, REIT, PMAY Affordable Housing and GST have positively impacted the realty sector. He added that the new concepts like co-living and co-working are emerging at fast pace which will contribute to the growth of realty sector.
A CII-CBRE Report on Challenges to opportunities was released on the occasion. The report highlighted that REIT acquisitions touched USD 10 Billion, accounting for a share of 14% in the overall investment volume in Asia in the period H12018. The report further highlighted that average ticket size of investments is expected to increase as corporates are keen on monetizing their land assets and smaller developers looking to retire debt bring attractive land deals to the market.