Fly-by-night builders should be eliminated: Hardeep Singh Puri

Union minister of state for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri Friday said he wants fly-by-night operators (developers) to be completely eliminated.

Speaking at the 25th Indian Plumbing Conference here, Puri said the policy decisions taken by his government including demonetisation, the Goods and Services Tax regime and the RERA have disrupted the market in a big way.

"The policy decisions like demonetisation, GST and RERA have brought a disruption in the market. But I have no sympathy towards them. I want the fly-by-night operators to be completely eliminated," Puri said.

He further said that it is necessary to solve issues of those (developers, buyer and promoters) who have genuine problems, but not at the cost of thousands of home buyers who put their life savings into the projects.

"The period of the offerings of 40:60 or 50:50 or 80:20 have gone now. Now every project has to be registered including ongoing projects. Even the agents who deal in the sector have to register. There is, therefore, a lot of hue and cry and a lot of blood shed," the minister said.

In todays day and age with zero tolerance for corruption if one thinks they can take somebody's money and invest it elsewhere, they are mistaken, he said.

The minister further noted that unsold inventory is declining and new projects are starting, which is an indication that the construction industry has streamlined.

"We are going to be a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025 and USD 10 trillion by 2030. If there one sector I would bet on for medium to long term, then it is construction. But we have to clean the mess just now," Puri added.

He also urged the plumbing industry to adopt the best global practices as it accounts nearly 12-13 per cent of the total cost of construction.

Speaking at the event, Tata Housing and Tata Realty and Infrastructure managing director and CEO Sanjay Dutt said the recent initiatives by the government to regulate and also bring transparency in the industry has disrupted the business environment.

"The real estate sector has particularly been going through a very strong headwind. The disruption is so severe that if discipline in the sector does not come now, many will perish and therefore disrupt the life and businesses associated with this sector as well," Dutt added.

He further said that crores of money has been given on debt to the real estate sector and nearly 40 per cent of that is at risk now of not returning to the NBFC and the banks and therefore it has disrupted everyones lives.