Real estate players blame govt for high prices and low demand

Suffering from lack of demand, eroding customer confidence and a gloomy future outlook, real estate players on Tuesday blamed the government for its woes and claimed that red tape was killing their business.

Developers claimed lack of implementation of a single-window clearance, delays in getting approvals required from various departments and not attaining industry status is badly affecting the sector.

In a letter addressed to Hardeep Puri, minister housing and urban affairs, real estate industry body Credai requested the ministry to initiate certain amendments including implementation of the single-window clearance mechanism in the Indian real estate sector.

“Credai expressed their concerns over the lack of ease of attaining construction approvals from the government authorities, which is causing a negative impact on project costs and delivery, making the government authorities responsible for the same. This notion is further backed by India’s appaling rank of 181 out of 190 nations in the ‘Dealing with Construction Permits’ category in The World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report,” the industry body claimed.

Credai claimed it has repeatedly urged the government to address other issues, which include reduction of the goods and services tax (GST) rate of 12 per cent on all homes purchased and not only those under credit-linked subsidy scheme (CLSS). It also demanded providing appropriate means for land financing to build houses under the affordable housing segment. Developers claim that despite the segment being granted infrastructure status, it is difficult for developers to obtain finance to build affordable houses due to the banking and financial institutions not recognising the infrastructure status given to affordable housing.