Ravi Karandeekar's Pune Real Estate Market News Blog: Realty Sales on Carpet Area Basis

Friday, June 22, 2007

Realty Sales on Carpet Area Basis

S S Kshatriya Principal Secretary, Housing Department, Government of Maharashtra, makes Announcement at "Realty 2007", the CII Real Estate Conference in Mumbai

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Friday, June 22, 2007 -- (Business Wire India)
Maharashtra's draft housing policy, which has been kept for comments and reactions by the common man as also the industry, is all set to be finalized by the next month, said Mr S S Kshatriya Principal Secretary, Housing Department Government of Maharashtra. Among the new issues it is likely to contain is the mandatory requirement of buying and selling of real estate on basis of carpet area, he added.

The Maharashtra Government has accepted its role as that of a facilitator and an enabler, said Mr Kshatriya, in his special address, "Vision of Real Estate Growth". He was speaking at "Realty 2007", the Confederation of Indian Industry organised Real Estate Conference. "The Government of Maharashtra is positive in its thinking when it comes to real estate, and is making efforts to remove the constraints faced by real estate industry," he added.

He spoke of the proposal for reserving some portion of housing layouts and townships for LIG housing or homes for EWS, and said the government could not be a mute onlooker, given the rising price levels of residential real estate. He termed "affordable housing" as a goal which the government was striving towards.

Touching on Public-Private Partnerships, affordable housing, self approval and working towards a single window clearance, adopting new technologies, private sector sharing responsibility for infrastructure development, incentives for rental housing, credit rating and bringing about more transparency, Mr Kshatriya said these are the issues that the Government of Maharashtra is seized of. "Public-Private Partnerships," he said, "were a means of facilitating the tremendous opportunity knocking at our doors."

On the issue of having a regulator for real estate, Mr Kshatriya said, "When you liberalize a segment of industry, there is a corresponding need for regulation, and real estate will follow power and telecom, when we talk in terms of having a regulator." He added that the rising price aspect of real estate may need to be regulated as well, "but if the industry would do it by itself, there might not be the need for the state government to step into the regulation aspect as regards pricing levels", he added.

He took up the issue of whether reservation for LIG and EWS was the best solution when it came to affordable housing, pointing out that the need was for "inclusive cities". He said extended suburbs were a location where affordable housing seemed possible, but these locations were being neglected. "How do we make these attractive?" was the question he raised.

Another issue was, how to provide incentives for rental housing? Mr Kshatriya said that on issues like FSI and taxation, the state government could consider giving preferential treatment for initiatives that promoted rental housing. He also stressed on the need to adopt new technologies which would bring about a revolution in mass housing. On the issue of need for infrastructure, he suggested the industry could share responsibility for infrastructure development by contributing to a fund, he added.

He also touched on Credit Rating and the need for Transparency in real estate.

Earlier, Mr Banmali Agrawala Deputy Chairman, CII Western Region & Managing Director, Wartsila India Ltd in his welcome address raised the question whether the present real estate boom is "all pervasive", or just for a small segment. Mentioning the role private sector has to play in the emerging scenario, he stressed on the need for infrastructure growth.

Mr Anuj Puri Conference Chairman & Chairman and Country Head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj pointed out the changes that real estate in India was witnessing, and said the conference deliberations would focus on current trends and future prospects in the Indian construction and real estate sector. He hoped that an analysis of contemporary trends would help understand the underlying market dynamics, while greater understanding via open, intelligent discussion among those who decisively influence the industry would help shape the sector's future, he said.

Business Wire India copyright.