‘Need to work as we think to make Housing for All success’

Between Swacch Bharat, Smart Cities and Skill development is the vision of ‘Housing for All 2022’.

In a conclave held by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI), a pan India representation of the real estate fraternity and the urban development ministry focused on ‘Housing for All’.

Venkaiah Naidu, Minister Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and P Muralidhar Rao, National General Secretary, BJP said that amid all the development talk, India is being globally recognised and most countries want to invest in and partner with India. In realising the country’s potential in terms of housing and infrastructure, the central government is open to PPP (Public Private Partnership) ventures and visionary entrepreneurship.

Anuj Puri, chairman and country head, Jones LangLa Salle says, “A new discourse in housing has taken place. Real estate hopes for a good time with talks about REITs, liberalisation of FDI, Smart Cities and affordable housing, with a timeline of 2022.”

A few discussion points:

‘Intensive urbanisation’

The housing shortage at present is close to 18.76 million. The central government vision would become a reality only if it foresees migrant population and scope of development. The real estate fraternity believes that cities should be ready to celebrate migrants from villages and plan the scope of urbanisation accordingly. Almost 10 million migrants add to these urban cities every year. If regulations ease out well 30 million housing units can be built without compromising on affordability.

‘Regulations in place’

A unanimous request for environmental laws to be simplified, increase in funds for skill development of construction workers, fiscal tax exemptions, Research and Development for construction, need for disruptive innovation, institutionalisation of rental housing, time bound clearances of approvals and reforms to be taken into consideration. The developer fraternity also voiced the need to relax the Floor Space Index (FSI) if affordable housing needs are to be a reality.

‘Online is the bottom line’

Both, the ministry as well as the fraternity, realised the need for speedy No Objection Certificates (NOC’s) so consumers wouldn’t need to personally approach the ministry for these.

‘Follow examples’

While we talk about Clean India, Skilled India and Strong India which was the CREDAI Conclave’s agenda, there have been examples amid us. In Kerala, 65,000 apartments have taken an exemplary lead when the CREDAI chapter of the city adopted a zero garbage disposal scheme. Similarly, the Pune chapter went in for skill development of construction labourers which is very essential to concretise the agenda of affordable housing.

With a vision in place, 8 years is all it may take to fill the deficit of 18.76 homes.

Source:http://content.magicbricks.com/industry-news/delhi-ncr-real-estate-news/need-to-work-as-we-think-to-make-housing-for-all-success/79025.html