The online building permission system will be implemented across all cities by March next year from about 2,500 cities currently to facilitate ease of doing business in the real estate sector, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said on Thursday.
Addressing a real estate conference organised by CII and JLL India, the secretary also highlighted that the government has already sanctioned 1.14 crore homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) to achieve ‘housing for all’ in the country.
Mishra highlighted that in the World Bank’s ease of doing business report, under the construction permits category, India’s rank has jumped to 27th out of 190 nations from 181st position. “At present, online building permission system has been made operational in around 2,500 cities,” he said, adding that this has resulted in reduction in compliance cost and time. “I am confident that by March next year, we will implement this system 100 per cent in all cities,” the secretary said.
The online system has been fully implemented in 19 states and Union Territories (UTs) and will soon be operationalised across all 36 states and UTs, he noted. On the PMAY-U scheme, Mishra said the government has sanctioned 1.14 crore houses so far and works have started on 89 lakh homes. He said around 52 lakh homes have already been completed. “We have committed Rs 1.85 lakh crore for this scheme and out of that Rs 1.13 lakh crore has been already provided,” he said.
The secretary said the works on the remaining homes under this scheme will be completed in the next two years.
Talking about reforms in the real estate sector, Mishra said the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, known as RERA, has been implemented across all states except Nagaland and the legislation has brought confidence and trust in this important sector of the Indian economy. He said around 70,000 real estate projects and 55,000 property agents are registered under RERA, while about 75,000 cases have been resolved by the authority.
The secretary also highlighted the government’s recent initiatives like Model Tenancy Act and Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC), saying both would open up new opportunities for the real estate players. The Model Tenancy Act has already been adopted by a few states, he said and hoped the remaining states would also follow suit.
Regarding the ARHC scheme that aims to provide affordable homes to migrants, he said there is a lot of interest from private players and many applications have already been received and are being sanctioned. Mishra said the government has provided a lot of fiscal and other support to the real estate sector in the last seven years.
The secretary told builders to adopt technology in the construction of projects as well as sales operations. He said there is a huge scope for e-commerce in the real estate sector and complemented industry bodies CREDAI and NAREDCO for starting their online portals.
Mishra asserted that the future of real estate sector is bright with rapid growth in urbanisation in the country.
He said the real estate industry was impacted after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year, but sales and launches revived during October-December quarter of 2020 and January-March period this year.
The second wave again impacted the sector during April-June quarter of this year but revival has started from September, the secretary said. Stating that Indian economy is witnessing “V shaped recovery”, Mishra said the economic growth will aid fast revival in housing demand.
