A two-day conference of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI) that got under way here on Saturday evening is discussing various issues concerning the housing sector, including taxation and regulatory mechanisms.
Office-bearers of the association told reporters that the draft of the Real Estate Regulatory Bill had been revised several times with the objective of making housing affordable to all.
However, the changes were not enough and when the Bill is passed it would only end up increasing the cost of housing as the issues of taxation have not been addressed. Office-bearers of the association, led by its chairman Kumar Gera, said the government should address the issue of developing infrastructure, particularly availability of water and power. To a question whether affordable housing was one of the focus areas of the association, Mr. Gera said this would be possible when the government reduces the tax on real estate developers.
Though the demand for housing is more from the economically weaker sections of society, it could not be met as the customers do not get support from financial institutions, the association president Santosh Rungta added.
