Editor’s Note July 2018

Post-RERA implementation, market dynamics are changing fast in the real estate sector. The process is expected to continue for some time now. Though not significantly, but new launches have started happening and responses to the new launches is also better in comparison to previous few years. The festival season starts this time in the beginning of October with Navratras. It is expected that a slew of project launches would be seen a fortnight prior to the Navratras, which in turn might set the tone for Diwali sales and a steady momentum thereafter. Everybody in the real estate sector is hoping that this year’s Navratras and Diwali will spread cheer all around. We at Realty & More cherish similar hopes and wish that these come true as well.
One of the shocking news during last month was the arrest of PC Gupta, former CEO of Yamuna Expressway Authority, in a Rs 126-crore land scam case. Gupta and others are charged with purchasing unnecessary 57 acres of land through several shell companies whose board members were his relatives. The report finds top slot in our News Snippets column.
Last month, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs decided to raise the carpet area of houses eligible for interest subsidy under the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) for the middle-income group (MIG). Eligibility under the MIG I category has been revised to 160 sq. m. the carpet area from 120 sq. m., while that for MIG II was revised from 150 sq. m. to 200 sq. m. The decision has been widely applauded by realty experts, developer bodies and other stakeholders of the real estate sector. The move, according to them, will augment construction activities besides boosting the sales of large-sized apartments. The news development along with the response of the industry is covered extensively in this issue.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked repo tate by 25 basis points on June 6. Real estate players are of the view that this hike won’t have much impact on the sector. Look for their responses in our Corporate Bytes section.
The latest results of NBCC reflect revenue decline due to GST adjustment. Realty & More had an exclusive interview with Dr Anoop Kumar Mittal, CMD of the State-owned Navratna enterprise, and he shrugged off the apprehension that the company’s revenue will remain pressurised due to this in the coming quarters as well. In fact, he called the new taxation measure as one of the levers of growth. Dr Mittal also shared with us NBCC’s plans on Government’s vacant land, loss-making PSUs’ land for affordable housing. A consolidated report on NBCC is our Cover Story for the month.
On the completion of one year of implementation of GST, we spoke to various builders and stakeholders. All are unanimous in hailing the landmark taxation reform. We also present a JLL report and guest columns by two eminent real estate personalities as part of our GST @ 1 package. .
In our regular reads, this month we introduce a new column on Vaastushastra by Bapoo Malcolm, who besides being a Vaastu expert is a renowned journalist based in Mumbai. Hope you will like the refreshed Vaastu column. In our other regulars, the issue contains monthly horoscope and info on property rates of various localities and new launches across major cities.
Enjoy reading!