The affordable housing segment seems to be very attractive and lucrative for the reputed developers, as they are keenly entering or planning to enter this segment. The reason behind private developers in affordable housing segment could be various reforms and incentives provided by the government and the high tax benefits.

Once the housing finance firms and banks get the permission from RBI to lend money to developers to by land, the prices in the real estate sector would reduce even more.

Prime Minister’s vision of Housing for All by 2022 is the biggest promise made by him and various steps and initiatives have been taken by Modi to achieve this vision and goal. The Modi government is taking very sensible and attainable measures which seem to be beneficial for everybody including lenders, developers and customers.

This year’s budget is highly oriented towards affordable housing. There will be a rapid growth in the housing segment in India in the coming 5 years.

The tax benefit scheme in the affordable housing segment by 100% has also been extended by two years and it is now till 2021. All the developers involved in affordable housing projects will be eligible to pay zero tax. Affordable housing segment seems to be the only industry in India where even after making profit, you will have to pay zero tax. In a huge country with an immense population like ours, there has always been a need for more and more homes, and affordable housing will be able to fulfill the same. This tax benefit scheme in the affordable housing segment seems to be the biggest reason for private developers to enter this segment.

The granting of infrastructure status to the affordable housing segment is one of most crucial step taken by the government for the benefit of the builders which in turn, will benefit lenders also. Lenders will be able to borrow funds for long term from pension funds or insurers. The pension funds and insurance firms are required to mandatorily invest a part of their money in the sector of infrastructure, and thankfully, the affordable housing segment is eligible for the same now.

With the implementation of RERA, there will be a stop on the practice of builders duping the customers by taking the full amount of money from them in advance and then not even starting the construction of the project.

Another helpful provision is provided to the builders in situations of unsold flats. Earlier, in a completed project, if a developer had unsold flats, he had to pay a notional rent for all those flats. But now, for one year after the completion of the project, the notional rent will be zero. This will also attract private developers in affordable housing segment.

All these measures by the government may seem small, but they are sure to bring growth and transparency in the real estate sector of India.

The private equity in the residential segment of the real estate market has faced a downfall for two continuous quarters. This shows the sector’s declining investor attraction among the efforts to finish the excess which is present in the housing stock.

The data and statistics show that in the first quarter of the year 2017, the segment of residential housing received an investment of Rs.3326 crore while in the previous quarter it had received Rs.5725 crore. Because of the heavy downfall in sales, funds are being invested very carefully and cautiously in the residential projects.

Even the builders are doubtful to borrow funds as they only want to concentrate on completing the already ongoing-projects. The interest of the investor has been reduced

mainly due to the following three reasons –
1.Non-banking finance companies giving increased level of competition
2.Limp sales
3.Reduced security shield for private equity funding

As most of the developers are showing a delay in the payment of the principal amount, the money received from the sales has been used for making the payment in the form of interests, for the last three years. As an obvious result, the level of security has reduced in a great amount and the new deals are not appearing to be very lucrative because debt funding is the only way for most funds and that needs security.

To provide relaxation to the homebuyers who have been anxious to get their homes delivered to them, the CEO of Noida authority and the president of CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India) will conduct a meeting with reputed developers with residential projects in Noida. The meeting is to be held on the 5th of May, 2017.

The main motive in the meeting will be to emphasize on the issues of homebuyers who are frantic over the delivery of their residential units, which the developers are constantly failing to hand over. The CEO of Noida Authority is going to suggest all the developers that before starting up with new projects and investing funds there, they should first focus on the ongoing-projects to get them completed as soon as possible. The residential projects which are almost completed will be instructed to get their completion certificates from the concerned Authorities.

On the other hand, authorities of Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway are planning to take legal action against the builders. All the builders who are at default in delivering the flats to the homebuyers and also who have not been able to pay their dues to the respective authorities will be on the hit list.

To address the issues which the homebuyers have been facing since a long time and to keep a check in the real estate sector, a committee has been set up. The chairman of Greater Noida and Expressway conducted a meeting with this enquiry committee. The committee has prepared a report and the authorities of Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressay  are all set to take action against the defaulting builders.

The consultants have been invited by the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) to hand over their proposals so that support can be provided to the authorities to convert Gurgaon into a smart city. This action was taken when approval to provide technical support to the authorities was given by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) for the smart city initiative.

When the government of Khattar lost the constituency of Faridabad and Karnal to the CM, it asked the Urban Development Ministry to help the city with all the technical support it needed to be made a smart city. It was also promised by the CM that all the incurred expenditure will be taken care of by the Haryana Government.

In alliance with the World Bank, the Ministry of Urban Development will be providing technical support to a total of 13 cities all over India to make their smart city proposals, and Gurgaon happens to be one of them.

The smart cities mission is an urban restoration program or mission with an aim to flourish cities by making them more sustainable and useful for citizens. Smart cities mission will be executed in cooperation with the state governments and local authorities by the MoUD.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon has also requested a proposal to select a consulting service to get started with the development of smart city proposal. Cost will be a major base and factor while selecting the consultant. Overseas consultants can also be considered for the proposal preparation.

Three corridors are going to be developed to the speed up the Rail-Based Regional Rapid Transport System (RRTS) in the area of National Capital Region (NCR). As announced by the Venkaiah Naidu, Union Urban Development Minister, two out of these three corridors will be developed in Haryana.

The two corridors, Delhi-Gurugram-Revari-Alwar and the Delhi-Panipat will give the trains the advantage to reach the speed of up to 160 kilometers per hour.

The total expenses incurred in developing these corridors will be Rs.50000 crore and this amount will be funded by the Haryana Government, the Central government and International Funding Agencies.

As per the Naidu, the finalizing of detailed project reports has been done. Gurgaon is also being considered as for participation in the smart cities’ competition. This proposal is being funded by the central and the state government.

Haryana has also confirmed that it will soon notify the rules under the implementation of RERA so that there is a certain level of trust between the builders and homebuyers.

Now that the control of UP is in other hands, the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority is most likely to re-launch the link of the high-speed metro between the international airport at Jewar which has been proposed and Greater Noida. A meeting was held a week before, where this topic was discussed with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). DMRC will look into the proposal to analyzing it and will let YEIDA know about its viability and cost.

This patch of metro was initially proposed by YEIDA in 2014 and then in June 2015 by YEIDA. Then in June, last year, DMRC suggested YEIDA that it should be initiated after 5 years as according to them it was too quick to prepare a report.

Therefore now, as the area is developing and urbanizing in a speedy way, the officials YEIDA have decided to re-launch the project.

This proposed metro link which is 35-km in length will be developed at the road level. The extreme stations will be at the proposed airport at Jewar and zero point of Yamuna Expressway.

The proposed metro link is not only going to serve the purpose of increasing the connectivity between YEIDA and Greater Noida, but it will also boost the connectivity with Delhi NCR.