Govt committed to bring balanced real estate regulatory bill

The government today said it will bring a balanced real estate regulatory bill to protect the interest of buyers as well as industry and the proposed law would reinforce the confidence of consumers and financial institutions in the cash-starved sector.
Addressing a CII's realty conference, Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Joint Secretary Rajiv Ranjan Mishra also said the government will soon come out with affordable housing and rental housing policies. He said the Centre is trying to streamline project approval systems.
"The government is fully committed and working in a direction to ensure that the new Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill protects the interests of the real estate industry and safeguards the interests of the house buyers as well," he was quoted as saying in the CII statement.

The ministry is in consultations with all key stakeholders like developers, builders, retail buyers, state governments, related ministries and other parties to work out solutions on a few regulations in the bill, he added.
The bill, which seeks to set up a real estate regulatory authority for regulation and promotion of the sector, has been referred to the 21-member Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha for examination.
Real estate industry has been asking the government to include all the stakeholders involved in project development in the bill and not only developers.

"A Balanced bill that protects both the buyers and sellers would certainly act as a game changer for the real estate industry which is presently passing through a tough phase because it would reinforce the confidence of various financial institutions, banks and foreign investors in Indian realty sector," Mishra said.

The proposed law is expected to boost demand if the consumer feels more secure of the timely possession, he said.
On speeding up the approvals process for projects, Mishra said a meeting has been convened of related ministries to streamline the approval process on July 30.
"We have requested the Ministry of finance and RBI on many occasions and finally it has agreed to the long pending demand of both the industry and the Ministry of HUPA to include affordable housing in the 'Infrastructure' sector category... But for now, the ministry is concentrated on the passage of the bill," he said.

Once the infrastructure status is granted, the affordable housing developers would get financial incentives, regulatory and procedural benefits that are available to infra sector.
The government is also working with the states to come up with a model affordable housing policy and would notify the same soon, he said in the statement.
"We have decided to roll out a 'Rental Housing Policy' soon as well to safeguard the interests of both parties. Our draft Model Tenancy Bill, 2015, will soon go to the cabinet for its approval," Mishra said, adding that the upcoming policy would do away with some archaic rules that governed this sector.