Monday, June 29, 2009

Focus on affordable housing, slums redevelopment: CREDAI

Focus on affordable housing, slums redevelopment: CREDAI
The Financial Express, June 29, 2009

R Ravichandran, Chennai

In a countdown to the forthcoming Union Budget, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), the second biggest industry in India and the apex body of the organised real estate developers/builders in India with over 4,000 members, has, in a pre-Budget memorandum, put forth twin themes—affordable housing and slum redevelopment—to fuel the largest common Indian dream of owning a house.

The recommendations put forth by CREDAI are very much aligned to the announced objectives of the Central government on using infrastructure development to revive the economy. The real estate industry believes that it has the potential to play the role of the steam engine basis the fact that real estate sector alone can add to the GDP bottomline by 1-1.5% if efforts are made to reduce the shortage of urban housing while moving towards a slum free urban India.

The expectations are also derived from the prioritisation of affordable housing aforementioned in the Deepak Parekh Task Force Report constituted by the ministry of urban development and poverty alleviation, said Santosh Kumar Rungta, President, CREDAI.

He said the 11th Five-Year Plan has estimated the urban housing shortage of 24.7 million units with 99% of the shortage pertaining to economically weaker sections (EWS) and lower income groups (LIG). Home ownership is critical for this segment not only for economic reasons but also for the health of the nation from a social perspective in terms of stability, law and order and education and employment. In order to meet this target the government should come out with fiscal incentives to encourage affordable mass housing in the range between 300 sqft and 600 sq.ft and up to 1,000 sqft by providing subsidy in interest payable by home buyer

Around 80 million urban poor live in sub-standard or unsafe housing conditions under the abuse and continuous threat of displacement. From the slum dwellers perspective there is an additional tax burdens puts dampners. From a developer’s perspective in the context of slum redevelopment, arrangement for pre-sale financing is difficult because of the perceived risk factors, while from that of the government, land is scarce, and with the migrant population increasing every year, redevelopment is critical to the orderly development of cities. The improper utilisation of land is uneconomical from the government’s perspective.

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