A webinar was organised by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) during the month of October. This webinar by CREDAI in collaboration with Nangia Andersen India highlighted the ongoing struggles in real estate. Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary, Mr. Durga Shanker Mishra as one of the influential personalities in the webinar addressed the stamp duty rates and asked various states to reduce stamp duty on registration of properties.
The presence of Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary in a webinar organised by CREDAI
Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary, Mr Durga Shanker Mishra expressed his views on how reducing stamp duty on registration of properties will help reduce the overall real estate cost and thereby encourage buyers to buy properties and boost sales of residential segment.
Maharashtra government has become one of the first states to decide on reducing the stamp duty. As a result, the property registrations in Mumbai, Maharashtra improved and are back to the pre-Covid-19 level.
Applauding this move of the Maharashtra government, Mr. Durga Shanker Mishra said, "We have also written to all the states. I am also following up with different principal secretaries and secretaries of the states to see if they can come up with such move which will help reduce cost".
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Housing Secretary's words of encouragement to the real estate and CREDAI
Housing Secretary said, "Real estate is one of the most important components of the Indian economy having immense contribution in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and employment generation".
Hence, he asked builders in the webinar to utilise this pandemic period to retrospect and see how they can reduce cost and adopt innovative technologies for sustainable and inclusive development.
Covid-19 pandemic brought the Indian real estate to a standstill till Quarter 2 this year. Property sales declined as well as led to the discontinuation of construction of projects. Several initiatives have been introduced both by the government and industry experts to combat the difficult phase and the sector eventually picked up its pace from Quarter 3.
Moreover, the arrival of the festive season has led to more opportunities for buyers. Along with stamp duty reduction, builders are making the most of this opportunity by offering festive offers to the buyers such as no EMI until possession, gold coins, free registration, free car parking, smartphones, or free maintenance while purchasing a property.
Mr. Durga Shanker Mishra also asked the CREDAI to submit recommendations for the growth of the real estate sector.
In response, CREDAI National President Mr Satish Magar spoke about the liquidity crunch faced by the builders due to the unwillingness of the banks to finance real estate projects. He said, "The government should consider extending the relief given to builders under the RERA law for completion of the projects, as the Covid-19 pandemic has prolonged from the earlier expectations".
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Webinar highlighted the schemes launched by the government for real estate
While addressing the webinar, Mr. Mishra said, "Measures taken during the past six years and also during the lockdown by the finance ministry as well as the Reserve Bank of India have started showing results".
He stated approval of over ₹ 12,000 crores out of the total ₹ 25,000 crores stress fund created by the government for real estate earlier. The amount has been approved so far in 123 deals which will help in the completion of 81,308 housing units. Furthermore, he urged developers to participate in the government's newly launched Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) scheme for migrant workers.
"The government has taken various measures in the past six years for revival of this sector such as enactment of realty law RERA." - he said.
RERA has benefitted property buyers by enabling them to learn every detail regarding the project such as plan layout, construction stages, possession date, etc. Builders can no longer delay the projects and will be held responsible for any fault in the construction.
The Housing Secretary added, "The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) has provided confidence to lenders that their money would come back".
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