Saturday, February 8, 2014

Article Regarding "Economy houses are in great demand"



A FICCI survey has found that maximum demand is for apartments in the Rs 5-15 lakh price bracket and most developers are looking to tap this segment. The survey "Indian Real Estate:currentScenario" reveals that nearly 34 per cent of the demand in the residential segment is in the Rs 5-15 lakh price bracket, about 26 per cent in the Rs 15-25 lakh price range, and 22 per cent for homes with Rs 25-40 lakh price tag. The report also found 12 per cent of the demand to be in the Rs 35-50 lakh price bracket; with demand narrowing to just 6 per cent in the case of properties priced above Rs 50 lakh. Affordable housing has been the latest buzzword among realtors, and the last few months have seen most developers realining their focus to tap demand in this segment Unitech has launched its new home brand "Uni Home" for affordable housing projects where the units will be priced at Rs 10-30 lakh, while others like Tata Housing, Ansal, API, and Puravankara Projects (through its subsidiary Provident Housing) too have jumped onto the affordable housing segment.

In fact, the growing demand in the affordable housing segment has been well-documented in various reports that have been released in recent past. For instance, real estate consultant Knight Frank projected a whopping market size of over Rs 3,00,000 crore by 2011 for the low-cost housing or affordable housing segment. According to it, a sizable opportunity for this sector is expected to arise from housing requirement of over two million units by 2011.most critical issue facing the real estate sector. "Multiple State laws hinder and delay the execution of projects," the

FICCI study said, adding that other issue were absence of single-window clearance, unclear land titles, and unavailability of cheap land for low-cost mass housing projects. It was felt that grant of infrastructure status to real estate (including housing, townships and commercial buildings) would enable easy access of funds from banks. They also favored PPP (public-private partner-ship) in low-income housing to support projects in the affordable segment. Other recommendations are abolition of service tax on renting immovable property, and streamlining and increased harmonization of registration and stamp duty rates across States. The need for a real estate regulator, which would act as a nodal agency for all real estate developments and address concerns of consumers and the industry, was also felt. The survey stressed on the need to help in better implementation of infrastructure and industrial projects and to safeguard the interest of farmers through clear guidelines on acquisition of land and compensation package.

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