NEW DELHI: India’s Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari addressed the queries of the real estate sector and guided them through these challenging times on Wednesday morning.
During the discussion the sector urged Govt. of India to address the liquidity issue, one-time rollover, stimulus package from the government to restart the business and boost the Indian economy.
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Minister suggested that “Automobile companies like TATA, Mahindra, Ashok Leyland to operate their own finance companies to run the business and tackle liquidity crises. This will help developers to provide cheaper loans to homebuyers with faster approvals.”
Minister further stated, “The real estate industry should adopt new technologies and reduce their construction cost which will help the sector to generate more demand and sell inventory at a low cost.”
While addressing more than 1500 participants over a webinarhe suggested that “Central and State government is planning to purchase housing quarters for employees at large scale and if associations come forward with some plans that can be proposed to the Government , it will certainly help the developer in liquidity and generate the economy.”“NAREDCO should propose the Government for investing some amount in NBFCs and ask NBFCs to borrow foreign funds which will help in reducing interest rates”, he said.
It was showcased by the chief that there are several opportunities in, logistics parks, Smart Cities, Smart Villages, cold storage, road construction where developers can & should focus and think of something innovative idea to start an economic activity.Commenting of relief package he said, “Government is already in the process to provide relief package for the sector and if NAREDCO has some the suggestion should be put before the Government.”
Commenting on the webinar, Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani, National President, NAREDCO expressed thanks to Gadkari for showing the way forward as one learns to co-exist with COVID-19, especially in terms of in terms of opportunities which the crisis scenario also offers. “He spoke of ‘out of the box’ thinking, which along with application of innovation, research, skill and technology will result in cost optimization, which will positively impact liquidity. His suggestion about real estate developers also diversifying from plain residential real estate to infrastructure and new asset classes like warehousing, infrastructure, logistics to keep liquidity flowing and functional was a brilliant suggestion. Construction and real estate provides employment to around 15 per cent of the labour force in India, contributing nearly 8 per cent of India’s GDP, his suggestions will definitely take the share to higher numbers.”
Rajan Bandelkar, President, NAREDCO – Maharashtra said, “After the agriculture sector, the construction industry is the second sector to generate employment opportunities. We urge the Govt & financial institutes to reduce the home loan rate to provide additional buying power to the consumer. To ensure that we break the chain, developers have ensured that the labor workforce is quarantined at the construction site with adequate supply for necessary resources while following social distancing.”
Minister also shared views on, infrastructure projects, the Textile industry, NHAI, Roads & Bridges. He said, with help on new technology the country can reduce 30% of construction in making bridges.