State Bank of India

According to latest reports, in Odisha SBI, a public sector lender had advanced home loans of worth Rs 400 cr for year 2014 – 2015 and now country’s largest public sector lender SBI (State Bank of India) has set a target to extend Rs 500 cr worth home loans in Odisha for the year 2015 – 2016.

As per the statement of the BVG Reddy, Chief General Manager of State Bank of India, Bhubaneswar circle, “At the end of November 2015, our bank has already extended Rs 280 crore home loans and at this point of time we are expecting the closer with Rs 500 crore advances to the sector. This public sector lender had advanced a home loan of worth Rs 400 crore in the year 2014 – 2015 however; the NPA rate for the same sector was about one to two per cent. State Bank of India has extended its finance portfolio with tune of Rs 3325 crore which comes under home loan portfolio on the current date.

According to reports, SBI is all set to organize its own property expo “Utsav -2015”on date December 11 to 13 at Bhubaneswar. In present, about 40 real estate developers and builders which are affiliated to CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India), NAREDCO (National Real Estate Development Council), Real Estate Developers Association of Odisha and Association For Odisha Real Estate Developers are seems to participate in the property expo “Utsav -2015”.

Last year at the same event people has booked more than 200 housing units and loan of Rs 30-40 crore were sanctioned. Currentl y, SBI is operating in more than 800 branches in the state Odisha and has an NPA of more than 6 percent with maximum slippages in the agriculture sector, education loans, micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) sector and others.

Niranjan Hiranandani

According to Niranjan Hiranandani, MD of Hiranandani Communities and Founder-First President of NAREDCO (National Real Estate Development Council) Maharashtra that works under the aegis of Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, stated that Infrastructure projects and their timely completion are responsible for the success and growth of Mumbai Metropolitan Regions and Mumbai’s real estate market.

While elucidating these aspects Niranjan Hiranandani explains few projects such as; the Sewree–Nhava Trans-Harbour Bridge has increased the Metro connectivity whereas; Pinjal River project was necessary for real estate development and its growth in Mumbai and MMR. The more he added that these aspects and projects has changed the land use and its development in zones with granting of FSI and its proper usage of reclaimed land. He also pointed out that Mumbai can be the largest flower bed with surrounding Mumbai’s coast but for that it need to have the coastal road for Mumbai; apart from that it has potential to increase the green cover and ecological balance.

While addressing the context of real estate development and its growth in Mumbai city Niranjan Hiranandani stated that Infrastructure and development is necessary for growth of real estate sector”. The more he added that 4000 acre of saltpan land in Mumbai have a potential to create 5 to 5.5 lakh affordable housing units, however; the improvements of slum areas in all over the city is essential and for that we should implement slum policy which can effectively solve the  problem of affordable housing in Mumbai.

However; to bring the development in the MMR, he said that vision of the Project Naina has been shared with Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra as it is expected that project Naina is able to add around two times the land area of Mumbai to the MMR in form of a city and it has potential to complete the vision of Prime Minister which is the “Housing for All”.

Niranjan Hiranandani

If you are the one who is seeking for affordable housing unit in Maharashtra, so here is good news for you as recently NARDECO or the National Real Estate Development Council has come up with news in festive season that it is going to build more than one lakhs affordable housing units with no profit and no loss.

NARDECO is the umbrella developer body which works under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India has recently announced that they are going to construct affordable housing unit. Niranjan Hiranandani, Founder and First President of NAREDCO, Maharashtra stated that this is possible, and we can do it. The more he added that high cost of the land is big hurdle in the construction of affordable housing units, but this issue could be easily resolved if the state government can provide salt pan land for those projects which are affordable and with no profit and no loss objective. Niranjan Hiranandani stated that “We are planning to put forward this proposal in front of Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra. We will meet him with all the details of affordable housing project and our main objective will be to make sure that one lakh low-cost and affordable houses get built every year for next five years in MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) with the co-operation and support of state government”.

According to Niranjan Hiranandani, Game plan is very simple; At NAREDCO, Maharashtra we will deploy all the best possible technologies and equipments to make sure that cost of these project get within the budget. In Maharashtra there are several region where land for these kinds of projects are available, if state government will allow us to use land for these projects, so real estate developers who are the member of NAREDCO will build such housing units not in juts MMR region, but in all over Mumbai. The more he added that at this point of time we want to earn good name for entire industry and on the same time we want to help people to own dream homes in affordable price. Through this initiative it will be easy and clear to help people to get dream homes in reasonable price.

This is positive idea and there are many real estate developers who are ready to construct and help in these kinds of projects for a specific number of houses. There is no pressure in this project because we have seen real estate developers are voluntarily coming up with numbers of homes which they want to build.

Housing Projects in Mumbai

The state Finance and Planning Minister, Sudhir Mungantiwar has announced that the government will provide all the required assistance to ensure real estate developments are executed in a time-bound manner.

Urging developers to take up affordable housing projects at a real estate summit organised by National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) Mungantiwar said that realtors have been demanding single window clearance for undertaking housing projects. We are conscious about their demand and therefore have taken it as a priority.

The minister added that once developers start receiving faster clearances, project delivery will be quicker and at a much lesser cost. “While people must confidently invest in real estate, the developer community should ensure timely project delivery with sincerity,” Mungantiwar said.

Union Budget 2015-16

It is the demand of real estate developers in upcoming Budget to revive the tax structures and lower interest rates for the home buyers as home is there ultimate need. Apart from to seek for better infrastructure status for housing, Getamber Anand, the Elected President of CREDAI stated in real estate press conference organized by RICS that “The government should provide some fiscal incentives to the real estate developers to build affordable housing.”  NAREDCO Chairman Naveen Raheja stated that: “There should be some real stimulus for the affordable home buyers in form of lower interest rates.” The more he added that we wish this budget will provide better infrastructure status to housing if not the entire real estate”. On the same occasion, CBRE South Asia Chairman and Managing Director Anshuman Magazine stated that infrastructure development and low cost funding should be key for the revival of the real estate sector.

CEO Embassy Office Parks, Michael Holland demanded that “Now it’s perfect time when central government should provide some clarification on tax treatment of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), particularly on Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) because we all know that real estate sales are down and it can put the realty market in worst post-global financial crisis. It means that we are at the bottom, it can only go up from here as sales are not happening so this is good opportunity for buyers to buy home”. Commenting on the need to incentivize the affordable housing segment, Sachin Sandhir RICS Global’s Managing Director – Emerging Business & MD – South Asia said: “Despite the inherent fundamentals of the realty market, things have slowed down in recent times and we must introspect as an industry the reasons why this has happened, and address the issues. The core issue of increasing affordability and supply of housing should be addressed.”

In September 2014, SEBI, which is market regulator, had notified that there are few norms for listing of new business trust structure under REITs and they would help to attract more funds in a transparent manner into the realty sector.These norms were notified when Finance Minister, had provided the REITs ‘pass through’ status for the purpose of taxation in the last year’s budget, Vineet Relia, MD of SARE Homes stated that in order to ‘Make housing for all a Reality’ central government should look into relaxation of taxes, and lower interest rates with easy process of financing for the developers and build adequate infrastructure”.