NEW DELHI: Reeling under slowdown, endless court cases and stuck projects, both realtors and homebuyers are pinning their home on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who last week announced that she would come up with measures for the realty sector.
The finance minister, who announced several steps to boost the economy, including cheap loans and pumping liquidity, said that the measures for distressed homebuyers in general and NCR buyers, in particular, would be announced soon along with a slew of other measures.
“We have set up an inter-ministerial panel to look into the problem of homebuyers in the Delhi NCR. We will come up with a solution which will have an impact on homebuyers across the country,” Sitharaman had said last week.
Some of the measures the industry is demanding are creation of stress fund, relaxing definition of affordable housing and a relook at the interest subvention scheme.
“From the perspective of real estate, infrastructure and construction, it translates into good news. Effectively, the interaction with real estate stakeholders on 11 August seems to have received the Hon’ble Minister’s attention, and the twin problems of liquidity crisis and fiscal stimulus seem to have received a positive response,” Niranjan Hiranandani, President Naredco said.
He added that the NCR region needs special focus.
“It is good that the FM is working on a solution by taking all stakeholders along. Creation of stress fund will take care of the projects which are already stuck. Also relaxing the definition of affordable housing will immediately boost the demand of housing which falls under Rs 55-60 lakh. In Metro it is not very viable to make affordable housing worth Rs 45 lakh considering the huge land cost,” Hiranandani added.
Creation of stress fund for stalled projects like Jaypee, Amrapali, Unitech was a demand from both developers and homebuyers.
“In the wake of a large number of stalled projects on account of liquidity crunch, consumer sentiments have further dampened. The government can consider a dedicated stressed assets fund that would underwrite stalled projects and ensure eventual completion of these. This will help lift sentiments of exiting as well as prospective consumers by allaying fears around non-delivery of projects.” Shishir Baijal, Chairman & Managing Director, Knight Frank India said.
Sources have already said that the government is seriously considering expanding definition of affordable housing for metros and creation for stress fund. Also, it is considering to put Jaypee case on fast track, which has already exceeded the resolution deadline of 270 days.
The government on last Friday had already announced Rs 20,000-crore liquidity support to the struggling housing finance companies (HFCs), a move aimed at enhancing their lending capacity. The Rs 20,000 crore is in addition to Rs 10,000 crore support announced earlier by the housing sector regulator NHB.