KOCHI: Government should declare affordable housing as infrastructure industry, CREDAI Kerala secretary general Najeeb Zackeria said.
He told media persons that this will substantially ease the flow of funds to this priority sector and will go a long way in meeting the government’s objective of ‘Housing for All’. “Any housing project which has unit size less than 90 sq mts or 100 sq ft carpet area can be classified as affordable housing project”, he said.
“Demonetisation has not affected the industry as most of the sales are financed through home loans. Banks have reduced the rates,” said CREDAI Kerala former president Abdul Aziz, who was also present at the function.
CREDAI leaders urged the government to bring down the stamp duty to three percentage in line with the National Housing Policy. “Kerala has the highest stamp duty compared to other southern states and we hope the Finance Minister will look into this in the coming budget.
Similarly the registration charges should be reduced to one percent as prevalent in other states,” they added. CREDAI also demanded the government to implement a single window clearance for the industry.