BDI in line with govt. initiative to boost affordable housing

If we talk about affordable houses, it typically denotes the housing needs of the lower or middle-income population. At present, the need for a better job opportunities and the higher living standard has resulted in increased urbanization. This has also increased demand for housing in India. People with low income are not able to fulfil the dream of owning a house.

"To overcome this need, the state schemes along with Centre's PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna) are luring developers to launch more projects in the affordable housing sector. The increased thrust given by Government of India (GoI) towards affordable housing has given wings to the home buyers' dream of owning a house," said Sumit Berry, Managing Director, BDI Group.

As per the ICRA report, the affordable housing segment is going to increase by 30 percent as compared to the other segment of the real estate.

The recent budget announcement of establishing a dedicated Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) in the National Housing Bank will boost the Affordable Housing sector.

"To bring transparency and accountability in the affordable housing segment of the real estate sector, RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Act) was introduced in the country. Its positive impact is being observed in the sector in streamlining the affordable housing segment. India entered a new era of single unified tax regime called Goods and Service Tax (GST) on July 1, 2017, which has replaced the multiple taxes, levied by the central and state governments and has subsumed of all the indirect taxes. It has eliminated the complex and ambiguous tax structure plaguing the country," added Berry.

In the latest report from Cushman and Wakefield, the top 8 cities witnessed residential launches of approximately 74,000 units in 2017, mainly in the affordable housing. It also registered a 35 percent decline.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan of building homes for all by 2022 is set to boost the economy by $1.3 trillion, create 60 million new houses and over 2 million jobs annually.

In nutshell, it can be said that affordable housing sector, which is also called the 'growth engine of Indian Realty Sector', is surely going to witness the boom in the coming months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)