BJP Govt

Government to revise State Housing Policy soon

4:08 PM

Government to revise State Housing Policy soon




The BJP-led government is expected to soon overhaul the state housing policy to ensure speedier clearances and to cut project costs for the real-estate sector in Maharashtra by at least 15 per cent.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will chair a two-day conference, to be attended by heads of all urban planning departments and builders’ associations, in Nagpur next week.

The meeting will be the first of the many consultations which will then culminate in a revision of the state housing policy that was drafted by the previous Congress-NCP government. Satish Gavai, principal secretary for Housing, confirmed the review of the existing policy and said that it is aimed at bringing about lesser points of control and fewer levels of approvals for private firms in the real estate sector so that they can build more affordable housing units.

“So far the role of generating affordable housing has remained confined to the state. The private sector needs to be involved in it. The cost of a real estate project increases by 15 per cent due to delays in clearances. Therefore we need to evolve a mechanism for less cumbersome procedures and create a climate that will attract investment in realty,” said Gavai. He said that the proposed changes are also aimed at ensuring that there is a synergy between the housing policy and the Development Control Rules (DCR) which has seen several incremental changes since the policy came into force.

The 2007 State Housing policy was the first to stress on the need for a housing sector regulator and the state is yet to act on it. It also spelled out the marked shift in state’s approach towards provision of shelter.

The original policy stated its intent as, “the need for reforms and liberalization in the housing sector” where “ instead of the role as provider, the state government will increasingly play the role as facilitator and enabler.”

Officials said that the current policy review exercise will address issues such as easing restrictions on redevelopment and leveraging government to encourage skill development and capacity building for the realty sector.

The policy framework will be designed in consultation with heads of various municipal corporations and concerned state government departments as well as NGOs and industry bodies such as Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) and Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associationsof India (CREDAI).

Senior state government officials, however, said that it remains to be seen how much of the benefit of project cost reduction is passed on by developers to the actual home-buyers since affordability and not lack of supply is the real issue impacting buyers. “The only way residential real estate prices can be brought down is by way of government intervention through subsidies or controls. Since neither of it is possible, the only alternative is for the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority to construct as many houses as it can so as to force developers to slash their rates in order to remain competitive. However with the housing board’s land bank constantly shrinking, there is a need to implement policies that will help maximize public housing stock creation,” said the official.

Developer Sunil Mantri, President MCHI-CREDAI, said that the Chief minister is expected to kick off reforms in the housing sector by introducing measures for ease of doing realty business and reducing table-to-table transfer of files. “Currently in Mumbai itself, all real estate projects are required to get 60 no objection certificates before they are issued a commencement certificate for the project. We are looking at both reducing the number of NOCs and allowing its submission any time before completion of the project,” said Mantri. He added that the present time frame of six to 24 months that is required to issue clearances to real estate projects is also proposed to be brought down to one month.


- by Shalini Nair

Source :- The Indian Express

You Might Also Like

0 comments