Finally after getting rid of the last hurdle in execution of the land pooling policy, the 89 villages notified as urbanized, will be declared as ‘development areas’, within days.

In just two-three days, 95 villages in total will be declared as development areas by Delhi Development Authority (DDA), under its section 12. 89 villages have already been notified as urbanized; six more villages will come under development areas. Once the notification has been made for all the villages, the land pooling policy can be implemented by the DDA.

The land pooling policy getting executed will pave way for the success of affordable housing projects in planned areas of the city.

The acquisition of the land has been a very disputable issue and therefore, the development and growth in urban areas had become difficult. But with the land pooling policy, the land owner will be in direct control of the development and that will hopefully complement urbanization in the city.

The villages which will be developed under the land pooling policy are scattered over an area of around 77000 acres of land. Out of the total, 40000 acres will be for real estate development.

Although, the execution of land pooling policy is likely to change the structure of the rural areas, revenue villages located on the outskirts of Delhi will witness any change.

These villages located on the margins of Delhi should preserve their agricultural and natural character; otherwise the city will lose all the greenery.

The authorities of Yamuna Expressway and Noida are ready to classify and modify their annual budgets in the month of June, which will be apportioned to the two areas in the present financial year. As per the sources, the amount that will be allotted to the two areas in 2017-18 is around Rs.10000 crore. Where Noida is expected to receive Rs.6000 crore, YEIDA will receive a budget of around Rs.4000 crore.

The dates of board meetings of the authorities have been finalized. The board meeting of Noida Authority will be held on 2nd June, while that of YEIDA will be held on 9th June and the budget will get finalized. As per the sources, this year’s budget of Noida Authority is Rs.6000 crore, which is around Rs.3000 crore less than the budget of previous year.

As the Authority has been going through the problem of lack of funds, various projects including the Metro projects will be put at halt.

The main objective will be to complete the projects that are ongoing. The ongoing projects include city’s first ever elevated road, two metro routes which are under-construction, sufficient parking facilities, numerous underpasses etc.

On the other hand, YEIDA will allocate an almost same amount of budget as last year. Farmers are going to be at a higher position on the budget of this year with around Rs.1500 crore but Rs.1200 crore will be used for the development of infrastructure of the area.

The real estate and construction sector is ready to take the position of the most miserable job producer for the period of April-September. The overall hiring position has come down by 8 percentage points.

A reduction of 8 percentage point in hiring outlook would result in increase of jobs by only 4.83%, which will be the lowest in the survey of all other 16 sectors surveyed.

The sector witnessed its employment position coming down to 70% in the period of April-September, from 78% in the period of October 2016 and March 2017.

The sectors of Real Estate and construction are the most affected after demonetization and are facing a new low.

As per the experts, the sector is expected to again go through a troubled economic time when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be finally implemented from 1st July, 2017.

And as a result, jobs would also be affected and the outlook would come down for at least six months.

The move of demonetization, which was initiated to get rid of the black money from the economy and work towards cashless and digitized economy, has impacted the real estate and construction sector the most. The launches of new projects and sales of existing ones have been severely affected and the sector has become stagnant. The homebuyers and builders are still waiting to enjoy the beneficial outcomes of demonetization.

As per a report by KPMG India, 7.5 crore jobs are expected to be created by the real estate and construction sector by 2022 and it will come out to be as the biggest employer in the country.

The affordable housing segment has witnessed a considerable amount of demand and growth in the fiscal year of 2017. The contribution of the affordable housing segment has been more than 50% to the overall sales in the quarter of October-December, 2016.

Residential units costing less than Rs.50 lakh come under the affordable housing segment and as a result, it had a larger share in total housing sales in top cities of the country.

These nine cities are –
Noida, Gurgaon, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

According to a survey, out of the total number of launches in the residential sector in the last quarter of 2016, around 60% were affordable segment launches.

The increased popularity of affordable housing segment is because of support from the government, immense demand and the growing of interest of private builders. Also, cities of Noida, Gurgaon and Pune have been showing a great need for the affordable residential units.

With new initiatives taken by the government to provide homes to the low income groups and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of the society, private builders have many opportunities to take in affordable housing to increase sales.

The participation of private developers has a huge role to play in balancing the shortage of low-cost homes in urban areas.

Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has announced that the property tax should be paid by all the residents of the private colonies that are being taken over by it, without any default.

The property tax paid by the residents is one of the biggest sources of revenue, therefore, the taking over process of these colonies will only be carried out if every resident pays property tax with no outstanding dues.

However, Residents Welfare Association (RWA) will be paid an amount of Rs.25000 per month to look after the community center and also a separate amount of Rs.3 per square meter for maintenance of parks in the area. All the RWAs in the city will come under the same rule from now on.

The entire amount of revenue that will be earned will be given to RWA and an extra Rs.25000 will be given for maintenance. But if there are more than one RWA in the area, they will have to discuss it among themselves to decide which RWA will take the charge for maintenance. However, if they are not able to reach a decision, MCG will only have to maintain it.

MCG is also planning to make residents pay the sanitation charges. Currently, the residents are not paying any money for the garbage collection, but they may have to pay in the future.

The long due policy of land pooling in Delhi has been taken forward for implementation by Lt Governor Anil Baijal by putting 89 rural villages under the category of urban areas.

The land pooling policy in Delhi was initiated to develop the urban areas of Delhi and was notified in September 2013 by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). The rules for making the policy operational were given a green signal in May 2015.

But, the policy witnessed a halt because of some demands made by the Delhi Government like wanting 10% of the land pooled for developing schools, hospitals etc.

However, a notification was issued yesterday by Baijal which clearly stated the execution of the policy.

But there are many other steps also to be taken before the policy actually becomes operational and this is just the first step.

DDA, MoUD, Departments of Delhi government and other concerned agencies are not very prepared for the implementation of the policy and therefore, institutional investors taking a chance to invest would not be witnessed very soon.

The land pooling policy, apart from being beneficial for homebuyers, is also advantageous for land owners because they will be provided with developed land and development in the vicinity.

As per the land pooling policy, land owners or people who have their habitat in the villages situated on Delhi outskirts will have the provision to combine/pool their land and give it to the DDA (Delhi Development Authority). DDA will develop the infrastructure like roads and will give back a significant part of the land back to the owner.

Land owners who will be pooling land area between 2-20 hectares for development will get 48% of the land back. On the other hand, the land owners who will pool 20 hectares will get 60% of the land after being developed.

The land remaining will come under the ownership of DDA as per the Master Plan 2021.

Once the pooling drill is done, real estate developers can be brought by the land owners to initiate the development of affordable residential units.

Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) had a meeting with many private builders like Ansal, Unitech, DLF and Suncity to discuss the proposal of taking over their residential colonies. The day-long meeting saw the discussion on various factors of this proposal. The residents of these colonies have been demanding that any civic body should look after their areas and thus, they were also a part of the meeting.

Although there is no proper layout prepared for the taking-over process, 2018 is the deadline set for this plan. If managed, the process can be carried out in 2-6 months’ time. The taking over is dependent on two things –

1.The developer giving his approval to complete every deficiency in infrastructure work
2.Or the developer giving approval to pay the money required to complete the work to MCG

But, if the developer refuses to fulfill either of these conditions, their license may be cancelled and the colony will automatically be taken over by MCG.

A committee consisting of three private consultants has been formed, who are going to examine the colonies which are being taken over. They will make a report on all the estimated deficiencies and cost involved in bearing them. The report will be submitted by 15th of June. After that, the private builders will be given the option of handling the completion work, giving them a six-month period of time.