Govt extends loan subsidy for first-time homebuyers

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday extended the interest subsidy scheme till March 2020 for first time urban homebuyers who have annual annual income between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 18 lakh. This will enable new home buyers to avail up front financial assistance of about Rs 2.5 lakh from the central government, which they can use for down payment while booking, construction or re-purchasing the flat.
Announcing this Union housing minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, “The growth and performance of credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) for middle income group has been very good and we are on course to having about one lakh beneficiaries by the end of this year.” Till now over 93,000 people from this income group have availed the Rs 1,960 crore interest subsidy from the Centre, which has been disbursed through banks.

The scheme announced for benefiting two categories of middle class homebuyers by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31, 2016 was earlier extended twice till March 2019. “While this will enable a large number of new home buyers from the middle income group to get the benefit, it is also a positive signal for the builders who have planned projects targeting such home buyers. We expect huge number of people availing this benefit because of the clear policy that the government made,” said Amrit Abhijat, joint secretary in-charge PM Awas Yojna in urban areas.