jones-lang

The Government of Maharashtra is prepared to come up with legislation for making affordable housing facilities available to curb slum dwelling in Mumbai if required, indicated Mr Sachin Ahir, Hon’ble Minister of State for Activities, Housing, Environment, Industries, Mines, Repairs and Reconstruction, Slum Improvement, Social Justice and Urban Land Ceiling, Government of Maharashtra. “The alternatives for effective affordable housing are that the private players take up opportunity or the government intermediates to boost or the government come up with legislation for creation of affordable housing,” the Minister said while addressing the National Real Estate Conclave – ‘Maximising Opportunities 2010 and Beyond’, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Mr Ahir also pointed out that the government has extended incentives in terms of FSI for parking facilities and Green solutions in the residential projects. “We have created single window clearance system for SRA projects in the city. We may amend the Township Act to create more residential space through satellite townships,” he said. A real estate sector report, ‘The Seven Stars of India,’ prepared by CII and Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj was also released at the conclave. The report covered trends of real estate in India providing overview of the best performing micro markets for occupiers on seven most prominent cities including, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. According to the report, the IT/ITES and BFSI sectors will lead the charge as net absorption of office space is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 29.5% from 19.6 million sq ft in 2009 to 42.6 million sq ft in 2012. Mr Arun Nanda, Chairman, CII Western Region & Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd requested the Hon’ble Minister for a definite government policy on real estate industry. “The average project completion time is about 4-5 years. Frequent changes in the government policy on real estate and infrastructure affect the projects adversely. There is a need of definite government policy on the real estate sector. Besides, after land acquisitions, it takes at least 18 to 20 months to receive all required government clearances. A single window clearance system for the same is also required for speedy clearances,” he said. Mr Nanda said, “With market recovery in 2010, the residential prices are shot up by 30-35%. The industry players should not out price the market as there is strong demand and hence, tremendous opportunity for many players in real estate.” Mr Anuj Puri, Conference Chairman & Chairman and Country Head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj said, “Based on the recently released, Global Real Estate Transparency Report by Jones Lang LaSalle, The Indian real estate industry has its own challenges and opportunities. India was ranked 41st in an international survey on transparency in real estate transactions in Tier-II cities whereas, in 2008 we were ranked 50th. We are also ahead of China in the same manner which is due to increasing participation of international real estate companies’ participation and improvement in title recalls.”