Centre may soon come out with measures to boost real estate sector

The central government may soon come out with a slew of measures to boost the real estate sector in the country, an official said on Tuesday.

This would be a part of series of steps taken since August 23 to give a boost to the economy facing slowdown.

The official said the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry is working out a proposal of several measures, which also includes creation of a stress fund to complete stalled housing projects.

The government may also increase the limit of affordable houses, he said.

The real estate sector is facing multi-year slowdown in demand due to various reasons including tight liquidity situation, default by many builders and elevated level of prices.

During a meeting on August 11 with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, realtors apex bodies CREDAI and NAREDCO had expressed concern that liquidity situation has worsened after the IL&FS crisis.

In a separate meeting with the finance minister, Forum for Peoples' Collective Efforts (FPCE) had said that five lakh homebuyers are stuck in various housing projects across the country.

It demanded creation of a Rs 10,000 crore stress fund to complete such projects and provide relief to these homebuyers.

Homebuyers of Jaypee Group had told the finance minister that projects are not getting completed despite promoters having huge land bank and other assets like the Yamuna Expressway project.