Piyush Goyal promises to take up financing issues of realtors with RBI

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday assured realtors that he would take up the issue of easy financing to the real estate sector like other industries with the Reserve Bank of India.

The minister also assured that he would talk to state governments and urban local bodies for faster approvals for real estate projects, provided the builders pledge to do business in a transparent manner with zero corruption.

Addressing a conference organised by realtors' apex body CREDAI, Goyal highlighted that the new realty law RERA has brought transparency and certainty in the real estate sector.

"Clearly, your (real estate) sector is doing wonderful work and contributing immensely, whether it is to job creation, whether it is to building the needs of the nation..., contributing to taxes and the national GDP."

Ever since RERA was introduced, he said, "you will appreciate that a lot of the disciplines that were brought in were good for honest and sincere developers..."

"We now have a much more honest regime. And thankfully, with a lot of the unscrupulous developers out of the system, now bankers are also getting more confidence in financing the sector."

Responding to a concern expressed by CREDAI President Boman Irani that real estate is not getting finance like other industries, Goyal said he would take up the issue with the RBI and the finance ministry.

"If at all you feel that there needs to be a bigger thrust, the government will be happy to engage with CREDAI and your various associations.

"If there are any RBI problems, I'm happy to discuss it and take it up both with RBI and the finance ministry, because in some sense, as Industry Minister, you belong to me also," Goyal said.

The minister said that he would like to offer his service to see how it can reduce the entire approval process, be it planning approval, building approval process, if industry is forthcoming to commit honesty and transparency.

"What Prime Minister Narendra Modi desires is 'Na Khaunga, Na Khane Dunga' and you all have to take a pledge that you will not try to take a shortcut. If your industry is ready to work within bylaws, then I'll associate with you and work towards it," the minister said.

Earlier, Irani, the CREDAI President, said the industry needs land at affordable rates, simple building bye-laws and last-mile infrastructure.

On finance problems, Irani said the real estate developers are not getting loans from banks to purchase land, which is the most costly raw material to build real estate projects.

"We should get bank finance like any other industry. We are forced to take costly debt from NBFCs," he added.

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) is organising its flagship event CREDAI NATCON here during September 23-26. More than 1,100 builders are attending the event out of the total 14,000 members in the association.