With the foreign direct investment policy of the central government, the realty developers were expecting foreign retailers to set up their outlets and stores in India. Developers thought they could find some takers for their vacant spaces in their shopping mall projects. Continue reading
Mumbai, the city which remained the top home destination in India, has always enjoyed higher property rates. According to some recent reports, over the last four years, the property rates in the city have gone up by 66 percent. Continue reading
Oracle India will lease office space in BKC.
MUMBAI: Oracle has signed a lease agreement for its Indian arm Oracle India Pvt Ltd. The IT major has leased large sized office space in the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai. The group will lease 50,000 sq. ft. of office space.
Oracle India will have to pay Rs.340 per sq. ft. for gaining office in the BKC which is one of the most costly office spaces across India and Asia Pacific Region. The lease agreement will be for a term of nine years.
One floor will be fully leased by Oracle India. The transaction worth Rs.183.6 Cr is the largest lease transaction in FIFC. First International Financial Centre (FIFC) is a Grade-A commercial development in BKC.
Golf courses do have an impact on the property sale.
MUMBAI: In Mumbai and its neighborhood areas, golf courses are slowly becoming a necessary amenity. This is true especially for the top-end housing projects.
There is a higher demand for housing projects which have golf courses. Seeing this increased demand, the builders are also coming up with such projects. They use golf courses as a means to persuade the buyers to their projects now.
Though Golf courses are considered to be the sign and symbol of luxury now, there are only a few golf courses in Mumbai. Unlike Delhi-NCR, Bangalore or other top cities, the commercial capital lacks golf courses. Though main reason is land scarcity, excessive land price also matters.
Right now there are three 18-hole golf facilities in the city. Two of them are in South Mumbai, while one is at Chembur. Willington Sports Club and United Services Club are the two South Mumbai golf courses. Bombay Presidency Golf Course is located in Chembur. Continue reading
luxury housing segment will be costlier now with the revised deduction rate.
Was the Budget 2013 really a tolerable one? Though many of the experts have expressed that the budget 2013-14 was a moderate one, looking at the fate of luxury housing segment they may rewrite or overwrite on what they have said or written earlier. Here let us see how the budget will have an impact on the real estate sector as a whole and particularly on the luxury housing segment.
It is true that the real estate sector as a whole has received a slight help from the budget. Precisely saying only the affordable housing segment received a boost from the budget. On the other end, the budget 2013 has slapped on the top earners by imposing additional charges on them.
Luxury homes will be more expensive for the buyers as the budget reduced the rate of reduction on homes and flats from 75% to 70%. The revised deduction will be applicable to all homes and flats with over 2000 sq. ft. Continue reading
Budget 2013 holds nothing special to the realty sector
The first time home buyers will be benefitting from this budget as the Budget 2013 has proposed Rs.1 lakh additional deduction to them. As per the proposal of the budget the home buyers will be given Rs.1 Lakh deduction for the loans up to Rs.25 lakh and Rs.1.5 lakh for the loans above Rs.25 lakh.
By raising the tax deduction limit by Rs.1 lakh, finance minister P Chidambaram aims to promote the housing sector.
Anuj Puri, Chairman Jones Lang LaSalle India, said that the Budget 2013 is not realistic as it was expected to be. In the opinion of Mr. Puri though the Budget 2013 as an overall level is a moderate one it was not so useful to the real estate sector.
ORR Bangalore (Outer ring road)turns up as one of the best commercial real estate area.
The latest report of Jones Lang LaSalle India (JLL) revealed that ORR Bangalore is the best performing commercial area. The JLL report specially highlighted the growing importance of K. R. Puram – Marathahalli – Sarjapur Road stretch.
According to the recent studies by JLL the ORR Bangalore has an increased growth. This area has become one of the most performing commercial areas in Bangalore. Whitefield also is said to be included in the best performing commercial areas in Bangalore metropolitan. Continue reading
Commercial Sector Booms with Service Sector Growth
Growing service sector of India drive the demand for commercial real estate. Real estate research firms reported that Service sector of India showed a greater pace of growth rate of 8.5%. This will result in the increased demand for more commercial real estate space. In 2011 service sector occupied 70 % of office space and this is likely to be increased this year. Continue reading
Rupee has been depreciating and has positively influenced the demand from NRIs for residential properties in various cities across India, especially in Mumbai. The rupee has been touching new lows every day. Even today, the rupee touched 54.82 per dollar in early trades. Exporters and the NRIs are two categories which stand to gain from the weak currency, as they will receive more rupee funds on conversion. The term NRI also includes Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs).
“Because of the rupee’s downward trend, real estate has become cheaper for NRIs and many of them are now actively seeking residential property investment opportunities in the financial capital,” says Om Ahuja, CEO – Residential Services, Jones Lang LaSalle India “Apart from the advantages they have due to the depreciating rupee, developers are more than willing to offer discounts today owing to their on-going liquidity concerns,” says Om Ahuja.
Most of the funds are based out of Mumbai, which gives Pune obvious preference, as the city’s proximity allows these funds to track and monitor the market – and their investments – easily. Also, Pune is among the most rapidly growing cities in India after Mumbai, NCR and Bangalore.
According to Sameer Gholve, Manager of Capital Markets at Jones Lang LaSalle India, Pune has been favoured destination amongst Real Estate PE funds since 2005 – the year FDI opened for real estate.
The total flow of PE funds into Pune until December 2011 was approximately US$800 million. This consisted of both foreign and domestic monies through around 32 major transactions over the last five years. 2009 saw the lowest flow of private equity funds into the city, though Investors regained confidence in 2010 arrived. The renewed investor confidence resulted in a massive recovery of private equity deal closures in Pune
As expected, most of these funds have been invested in the residential property asset class. In fact, residential real estate has proved to be the most consistent and enduring magnet for private equity funds into Pune’s real estate sector. In comparison, investments into SEZs, industrial parks (STPIT) and mixed-use townships have primarily been seen only before mid-2008. From 2010 onwards, the interest in these formats as asset classes has been quite meagre.
Significantly, 61% of the total private equity investments that have been seen in Pune were done in projects located in East Pune. East Pune has the majority of the city’s IT industry developments such as Magarpatta Cyber City in Hadapsar, EON IT Park in Kharadi, CommerZone in Yerawada, Weikefield IT Park on Nagar Road, etc. These IT developments have had a major spin-off effect on the profile of these areas. The higher spending power and commensurate aspirations of the people working in these establishments has caused the arrival of massive malls and also generated a huge demand for quality residential projects. These projects are proving to be the major magnets for private equity investments into Pune’s real estate sector.
Mumbai may be second to Delhi in unsold homes, but it will take longer to sell them. Real estate developers in the financial capital must wait over three years to clear 1.13 lakh units or 120 million sq ft as high prices deter potential buyers, shows a study released by Liases Foras, a real estate rating and research consultant.
The study covers units in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) — including Mumbai city, Thane, Kalyan and Navi Mumbai — National Capital Region in Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. NCR, with 232.57 million square feet or 1.60 lakh units of unsold homes — roughly double Mumbai’s —will likely sell homes much faster, in 23 months.
“The NCR market is primarily an investor market and has very little comparison with Mumbai,” says Om Ahuja, chief executive officer (residential services) at Jones Lang LaSalle India. “The real estate market in areas like Gurgaon or Noida attracts a lot of money from neighbouring states like Punjab, UP and Delhi as people invest in residential properties.” Among the six metros, Pune homes will be sold the fastest, taking just 14 months to sell its 43.06 m sq ft at the current pace of buying. A steep rise in interest rates in the last 18 months was seen as the key reason for low sales as buyers try to avoid high home loan instalments.
The Reserve Bank of India cut key rates by 50 basis points last month, forcing lenders to lower their retail lending rates which could push sales.
With the boom of real estate industry across the country, it seems the youths are not just concentrating on good communication skills and sound knowledge of geographical area to become a good realtor, but are now looking at courses on real estate industry to get the professional touch. An industry report filed by leading real estate intelligence firm, Jones Lang Lasalle, India, has debated if a career in real estate in the country is apt right now.
Debating whether the Indian real estate industry is the right place to start a career, Sameer Khanna, Head, Human Resources, Jones Lang Lasalle India, noted that compared to developed countries, the Indian real estate sector still lacks sophistication and transparency.
Further Sameer Khanna explained, “However, it is popular for domestic and international investments. This has resulted in the need for better and capable human resources. Though real estate is not nuclear science, there are complexities involved.”
What courses to pick? While the real estate industry is changing fast, a lot of professionalism is coming in, as many major international players; developers are introducing best practices and higher transparency. “People equipped with the know-how, training and professionalism are in high demand, and are paid correspondingly,” experts revealed. Why are city students interested? While many students are choosing the course out of interest, many others enter the trade to see if the industry is challenging. Further, there are the third kind, who has families and forefathers who have been an integral part of the industry and are looking at entering the trade, with a professional course. “I do not know much about this industry but I have enrolled myself for this course because it seems interesting. So far the only role that interests me is one related to analysing the market,” said Shreeti Dey, a student.
The recent move by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its annual Credit Policy has given some hope for investors in the affordable housing segment. This is being seen as a positive development for the overall property market. While investors remain cautious and wait for banks to announce the lowering of interest rates, realtors are optimistic of the scenario, however, hoping that inflation remains under check. “While the rate cut of 50 basis points is definitely a ray of hope, it does not dispel the shadows nearly as much as may be initially supposed. It should be borne in mind that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has hiked interest rates 13 times between March 2010 and October 2011,” says Om Ahuja, CEO – Residential Services, Jones Lang LaSalle India.
“While this is understandable, given the on-going concerns over inflation and liquidity in the market, the spate of rate hikes has created a compounded problem for the residential real estate sector. The series of hikes in the past have also affected the price that builders put on their properties, since their own costs of borrowing have increased. It is unlikely that property prices will come down because of this rate cut. In fact, it is very likely that there will be an upward bias on property rates because of the anticipated improvement in sentiments of buyers who have so far been sitting on the fence, waiting for some signals of relief,” adds Ahuja. Shrinivas Rao, CEO, Vestian Global Workplace Solutions says the reduction in repo rate will boost economic growth and improve business sentiments which in turn will strengthen buying activity. However, the impact will vary across sectors depending on implementation of the cut by leading banks.
“Leading lenders are likely to cut interest rates on deposits and loans. Home loans are likely to turn cheaper. For instance, a 25 basis point cut could lower home loan EMIs by Rs 16 per Rs 1 lakh. A cut in the repo rate will also reduce the interest on commercial loans which in turn will favour developers to avail cheaper loans, thereby providing traction to real estate activity. Cheaper loan rates are expected to attract more end-users, impacting the residential sales positively,” he says.
With banks offering loans at cheaper rates, developers are likely to prefer the bank loans as against private equity funds. However, an increase in market demand in the short term will drive capital values, thereby benefitting retail investors, adds Rao. According to Ganesh Vasudevan, Vice President and Business Head, IndiaProperty, the cut of 50 basis points by the RBI is a move that will have a positive effect on the real estate segment.
Sahara Group, ICICI Bank, Bhushan Steel, Bharti Realty, Red Fort Capital and Shri Lal Mahal are understood to be in the race among others to acquire Parsvnath Developers’ 1.18 acre of prime commercial land near Connaught Place in the National Capital.
In January, Parsvnath had announced plans to monetise the KG Marg land, which it had bought for Rs 200 crore in 2008. Parsvnath, which is eyeing about Rs 700 crore from sale of this land, got the building plan approved from local authority last week and potential buyer can start construction on the land immediately after the deal, sources said.
“The first round of bidding and due diligence have been already completed. The process will be expedited now as the company was waiting for the building plans approvals before it starts negotiation with potential buyer,” a source, who is involved in the process, said. Sahara Group, ICICI Bank, Bhushan Steel, Bharti Realty, private equity firm Red Fort Capital, rice company Shri Lal Mahal and one leading realty firm from NCR have shown interest in buying this land, sources said, adding that Parsvnath had got bids up to about Rs 700 crore in the first round of bidding.
When contacted, Parsvnath Developers Chairman Pradeep Jain said: “The process for sale of this land is on. We cannot comment any further.” Property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle India is helping Parsvnath in this deal. The built-up area allowed on this prime land is about 1.5 lakh sq ft with 300 car parking. Realty consultant said that prime office buildings near CP are currently commanding a monthly rental of 350-400 per sq ft.
Although Jain did not give any timeline for completion of this transaction, sources said that the deal could be closed in this quarter. Parsvnath has a net debt of about Rs 1,200 crore and plans to reduce it to about Rs 500 crore by utilising the proceeds from sale of this prime property. The company has two housing projects and several shopping malls at metro stations in the National Capital. It is setting up an office building near Gole Market here with an investment of Rs 300 crore.
That apart, Parsvnath had bought in 2010 a 38 acre of land near Sarai Rohilla from the Railways for Rs 1,651 crore, making it the second biggest land deal in Delhi. The company, in partnership with Red Fort Capital, plans to provide luxury housing and commercial space in this project. Parsvnath, which has a land bank of about 200 million sq ft across the country, had received private equity funding from Sun Apollo and JP Morgan in some other projects in NCR.
While demand for residential space was mostly sluggish in 2011, demand for office and retail space remained healthy in Bangalore.
The market for commercial space is estimated at 50 mil sq. ft. across the country. The average yearly absorption rates in Bangalore and NCR are about nine mil sq. ft. While six mil sq. ft. is absorbed in Mumbai, the rates are 4 to 5 mil sq. ft. each in Chennai and Hyderabad.
However, last year, Bangalore topped the list with the highest absorption of more than 13 mil sq. ft. of non-captive office space, about 2 mil sq. ft. more than the levels seen in 2010. About 80% of this came from the IT & ITES sector.
“Consolidation of real estate portfolios by Indian and MNC IT companies has boosted the real estate market in Bangalore,” said Karun Varma, MD (Bangalore and Kochi), and Jones Lang LaSalle India. “Demand for back offices and contact centres has resulted in continued strong growth in suburban real estate development, with IT companies lining up their investments for setting up new facilities in the city,” he added.
Experts predict demand for 16 mil sq. ft. of office space in 2012 in India’s Silicon Valley, which will be the highest ever in the country. This will be mostly due to the new SEZ norms and direct tax code (DTC) that will come into play.
About 75% of the 16 mil sq. ft. office space will be in upcoming SEZ regions. Recently, global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs took up 1 mil sq. ft. of office space developed by Kalyani Developers on the outer ring road. “Companies see an opportunity from a tax break perspective; so, many are planning to migrate their future work to SEZ parks,” said Shrinivas Rao, CEO (Asia Pacific), Vestian Global Workplace Services.
In the next three years, an additional 28.8 mil sq. ft. of office space will be available in the region, for which projects are already under way. “We are expecting to see about 6 to 7 mil sq. ft. of this to come up in 2012,” said Rao.
Jones Lang LaSalle India, a global research firm in the real estate sector, says that prices of residential units in India in the next six months should witness marginal appreciation. JLL says: “Over 60% of residential launches in the Top 7 cities (mostly in cities other than the NCR and Mumbai) are priced in the range of Rs 2,000-4, 000 per sq. ft., which meets the demand of middle-income buyers.”
At the same time, the RBI has given sufficient indications of probable cuts in key rates during second half of 2012, which will improve affordability for homebuyers and provide lower interest costs for developers. This will help in increasing the demand for residential units in the country. JLL also argues that even in the present bad condition, prevailing absorption rates are at nearly 10-12 %, which translate into an average absorption period of 8-10 quarters for a residential project. “This implies that at average prices, any average residential project should be sold out before construction is completed in around three years from the launch.”
JLL says that new project launches, which were slow in Mumbai and the NCR in the first half of 2011 due to approval and land acquisition issues, have now started to pick up. This should improve cash flows for developers having large land banks during 2012. A number of builders have acquired huge land banks on borrowed fund. As the builders pay huge interest rates, nearly 15-18 % on the borrowed fund, the servicing of debts has put huge strain on their finances. Any improvement in off-take is likely to release them from the financing pressure.
In the present slowdown condition, despite bad financial conditions, builders are not cutting the prices as in most parts of the country; they have priced their projects at nearly cost prices. “With rising input costs, developers do not want to sell below a threshold, which does not justify their minimum replacement returns,” JLL says. “This leaves home buyers with a small window of opportunity – the next six months – when home prices should witness marginal appreciation. After six months, a second wave of high appreciation is predicted.
However, in some of the micro markets in Mumbai and the NCR, the appreciation in prices was even sharper. In the last two years, in some of the markets like Gurgaon’s Dwarka Expressway, prices have almost doubled.
Overall, the Indian real estate market went through a slowdown in the last one year. But, all the predictions of a hard landing for the residential property market in 2011 and 2012 have failed to come true, so far.
Private equity deals are alive and kicking in Indian real estate space even though headline numbers do not reflect the same due to the absence of big ticket investments. The total number of PE deals during the first quarter of CY 2012 has hit a three-year high, according to VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle.
There were 12 deals worth $279 million in Q1, compared to 9 deals worth $432 million in Q1 CY2011 and 4 deals worth $97 million in the same period in 2010, according to VCCEdge. This is much lower than the peak of 22 deals cumulating to $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2008, after which stock markets went into a tailspin due to global financial meltdown.
Although the overall value of PE investments has shrunk and investors remain cautious about the sector, it does not necessarily reflect a poor investment scenario in the realty space, according to analysts.
Shobhit Agarwal, joint managing director (capital markets) at property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle India, says, “Most of the funding that is happening now is for last-mile project completion where most of the money has already been spent by the developers and they don’t need large-size funding.” In fact, the projects are 60-70 per cent complete and developers are looking for some more equity to finish them off, he adds.
Last year, the average deal for PE investments was skewed up in the first quarter due to two $100 million-plus investments, including one by Ascendas. This pushed up the average deal size to around $50 million, as against the average size of $20-25 million in Q1 of the previous two years.
But there is another reason for lower quantum of investments by PE firms in the realty sector. According to V Hari Krishna, director of Kotak Realty Fund, “Most of the funds are reaching their shelf life and new fundraising is not happening in the same pace as it happened in the earlier round. Therefore, a lot of funds have either exhausted their capital or are on the verge of it and investments are slowing down.”
Even though the average ticket size of PE investments has shrunk, real estate remains one of the top sectors drawing PE firms. During Q1, real estate accounted for almost 10 per cent of the total PE deal volume and around 15 per cent of total value of PE investments, as per VCCEdge.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) on Wednesday said the company has sold its leasehold rights of a property in Mumbai for Rs 452.5 crore to Ajay Piramal Group firm Piramal Realty.
HUL and entities of Piramal Realty have signed an agreement for assignment of HUL’s leasehold rights of the land and building named ‘Gulita’ situated at Mumbai for Rs 452.5 crore, HUL said in a filing to the BSE.
The consideration includes both fixed and variable components, it added.
According to sources, realty consultant Jones Lang LaSalle India negotiated the deal on behalf of Piramal Realty.
The property was taken on lease from Maharashtra government by HUL and used as a training centre, a source said, adding Piramal Realty will use the premises to develop a new residential complex.
In the past few years, HUL has been selling off some of properties it owns, including some in Gurgaon and Mumbai, to unlock value.
Shares of HUL today closed at Rs 399.55 on the BSE, down 1.08 per cent from its previous close.
The real estate sector in Bangalore has grown to a large extent in the past one year. In the year ahead, the city’s realty is expected to grow by 25 per cent, estimates the Karnataka Chapter of the Consortium of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI).
“We are expecting the realty to grow by 25 per cent in the coming year. Last year too we have witnessed a similar growth,” said Sushil Mantri, president, CREDAI Karnataka.
As per studies conducted last year, the city is likely to absorb about 7.1 million sq. ft. of office space against a supply of 7 million sq. ft. While demand for office and commercial sales in the city saw a rise, residential sales remained slow.
Experts said that the city witnessed a great strength in high street leasing and rent, and capital value has increased nominally in a few sub-markets. Also, there was a rise in rental value as demand by retailers remained strong.
With commercial office space developers offering favourable options, predictions for 2012 are that several IT companies in the city will look at pre-leasing office space.
However, analysts opine that office space supply will outweigh demand.
“FDI in multibrand real estate is expected to catalyse a lot of demand from international retailers. International luxury brands will restrict their growth plans to Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore,” states a projected report by Jones Lang LaSalle India, Realty Intelligence firm.
The report states that the mid-end and affordable housing segments will record healthy appreciation in capital value in short term from a low base.
As per the latest data available from the Reserve Bank of India, the outstanding for commercial real estate is Rs 1187.1 billion as of January 2012, a growth of 12.2 per cent over the year-ago period. Although this rate is lower than the growth figure of 19.9 per cent in the same period the previous year, the double-digit growth stands in sharp contrast to the claims from public-listed realty firms who say bank lending has shrunk considerably.
Central to the theme of continued lending to real estate development are the low-lying, unlisted property developers of the country – a crop of realtors who have always been on the side-lines of the big Indian realty story but who are slowly yet surely climbing up the ladder for a larger share of bank loans.
According to a research report by IDFC’s Institutional Securities team last December, bank and NBFC loans to developers have increased 15 per cent to Rs 1.8 trillion for the 12 months ended September 11 in spite of higher interest rates and the RBI’s efforts to curb lending to the sector. Of this, loans to unlisted developers accounted for more than 72 per cent of the total.
One reason for such a shift could be the hard targets that listed realty firms chase due to the pressure of being listed, with compulsory quarterly disclosures. Add to it the size of the firm and pressure points will become clearer. A listed firm usually places bigger bets with larger projects and when the market faces turbulence, project execution becomes a problem. This reverberates with pending projects and drying up of bank credit.
Even as most unlisted private developers are small realtors, there are some large private groups in different regions of the country. Given the huge set of private developers, even private equity developers have been betting on projects sponsored by such realtors.
Realty plus Excellence Awards 2012 series for the northern region of India will be on March 21. The awards for South India and West India were given away on March 2 and March 9, respectively.
The Realty plus Excellence Awards recognise people who have played a key role in the growth of the Indian real estate sector. Contributions made by developers, architects, interior designers, state government, and property advisors are recognised. These awards are decided upon by a distinguished jury.
Anuj Puri, Chairman and Country Head, Jones Lang LaSalle India, is the Jury Chairman for this year’s awards.
Realty players said that purchase or construction of a house would now cost more due to expected rise in prices of key raw materials cement and steel and a hike in service tax by 2 per cent.Barring low-cost housing, property prices are expected to rise in the coming days after the proposed hike in service tax from 10 per cent to 12 per cent.
TDS at the rate of 1 per cent on transfer of immovable property (other than agricultural land) above a specified threshold will also add to the cost of buying a house. The threshold would be over Rs 50 lakh an urban areas and Rs 20 lakh elsewhere, according to the budget proposals.
Cement and steel manufacturers have already hinted at a price hike after the Budget proposed raising the excise duty to 12 per cent.
Commenting on the budget proposals, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) Chairman Pradeep Jain said, “Application of TDS on the purchase and sale of property and increasing Service Tax by 2 per cent will further add on to the overall cost of property and are bound to make property more costly in coming days.”
Realty consultant DTZ said that increase in the service tax is going to further increase marginally the overall burden on the home buyers of mid and high segment (dwellings costing more than 25 lakh). The impact of service tax would be about Rs 40,000 on a Rs 75 lakh home.
However, DTZ said that affordable housing, being part of negative list, is exempted from service tax and the move would give a boost to the affordable housing segment.
Jones Lang LaSalle India Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri said that “the increase in the service tax rate from 10 per cent to 12 per cent will increase the cost of production for developers, who are already reeling under high input costs. It follows that this increased burden will be passed on to end users”.
Realtors from Chennai are expecting the Union government to enhance the income tax exemption for up to Rs 3 lakh paid as interest on housing loans in a year from the existing Rs 1.5 lakh which will help to boost the real estate market.
Siva Krishnan, head of residential services (Chennai), Jones Lang LaSalle India, said that “The market, which was struggling last financial year, has picked up and we expect the government to enhance the income tax exemption limit.”
The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India have expressed that the realty sector and housing policy should be modified in order to address a huge demand of 26 million homes. “Inordinate delay in the sanction of approvals have hit hard. Provision of single-window clearance for real estate development projects is the need of the hour,” said CREDAI president T Chitty Babu.
In addition he also said that “Some of the measures like creation of Special Residential Zones can help. Affordable housing sector should continue to grow based on the incentive given for borrowings from banks for homes.”
Also the 36-month holding period should be reduced to 12 months.