The government is keen to introduce the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill in the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament. Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ajay Maken recently said work to finalise the details of the Bill are underway and the government is eager to establish an authority for regulation in the real estate sector.
Mr. Maken said that inter-ministerial consultations on the Bill have been initiated and a Cabinet clearance will be sought after the consultations are over. He said the Bill will “hopefully” be introduced in Parliament in the forthcoming Budget session.
The draft legislation that aims at ensuring efficiency and transparency in the sale and purchase of real estate has been pending for a long time. The draft Bill suggests setting up a regulatory authority in every State.
Referring to the shortage of housing, especially for the economically weaker sections, the Minister said under the Ministry’s flagship programme Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), Central assistance will be provided to States who are willing to assign property rights to slum dwellers, for slum redevelopment and creation of affordable housing stock. “There will also be another condition — that of reserving 15 per cent of the floor area ratio or 35 per cent of the number of dwelling units for economically weaker sections or lower income group housing.”
Housing, besides being a very basic requirement for urban settlers, Mr. Maken said is a key to accelerating the pace of development through its forward and backward linkages with other sectors in the economy. “According to the report of the technical group on estimation of housing shortage constituted in the context of formulation of the 12th Five-Year Plan, housing shortage is estimated to be around 18.78 million. Of this, around 96 per cent dwelling units are required for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Groups (LIG). In addition to this, with the fast pace of economic reforms and the national objective of making India a developed nation by the year 2020, the pace of urbanisation will increase further, as urban centres play a major role in the national economy and productivity,” he added.
He said the HUPA Ministry has been pursuing the idea of promoting affordable housing and related core infrastructure services through some fiscal incentives with the Centre.
