Government may extend central aid to spur private investments in housing: Naidu

Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that to promote private investments in affordable housing on a large scale, his ministry is considering to extend central assistance.

The assistance would be to the tune of Rs 1.50 lakh per eligible beneficiary belonging to the economically weaker section under the projects taken up even on private lands.

He also said a National Urban Rental Housing Policy (NURHP) would soon be announced to meet the needs of migrant workers, students, single working women etc.

So far, the Ministry has approved construction of 5,83,427 houses under Affordable Housing in partnership component of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) only with state governments' partnership.

Elaborating on the strategy to meet the "Housing for All" target by 2022, Naidu said that 15 states and Union Territories were being focused on to meet the target by 2019.

These include Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar Islands,Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, and Puducherry.

Other large states have been asked to submit housing proposals by end 2018, so that construction of houses can be completed by targeted 2022.

Stressing on the need for promoting rental housing stock to meet the housing needs in the context of urbanisation being a continuous process and driven by migration, Naidu said that the NURHP would be announced soon to meet the needs of migrant workers, students, single working women etc.

The policy outlines measures to be taken to encourage investments in social rental housing with government support and market-driven rental housing without government support.

He said that rental housing would be an effective complement to the Housing for All mission.

The minister also informed that the remaining 32 sections of the Real Estate Act, 2016 had been notified on Wednesday relating to the registration of ongoing projects that had not received completion certificates, penalties for non-compliance etc., which would be effective from first of next month.

He said under the Act, projects and real estate agents would have to be registered with regulatory authorities within three months thereafter.

--IANS

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