RERA to have transformative effect on real estate sector: Hardeep Singh Puri

New Delhi, November 15, 2017: The conferring of industry status to affordable housing, the insolvency bill and the Goods and Services Tax have created an environment to resolve all the miseries of the real estate sector, said Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India at the RICS Real Estate Conference 2017 in New Delhi today.

“There will be some short-term pain but it will result in a reversal of the current situation. Policy reform measures such as demonetisation and GST will also increase the number of people under taxation,” Puri said while speaking at the inaugural session of the conference titled Policy, Reform and Regulation: The backbone of Indian Real Estate, supported by CBRE as the Knowledge Partner.

The year 2016 saw a series of policy and procedural reforms being introduced and implemented by the Government which had a direct impact on India’s economic performance. Demonetization by far was one of the hardest hitting reforms’ introduced in the last financial year. The RICS Real Estate Conference 2017 attempted to examine how policy and procedural reforms such as demonetization, RERA and GST are paving the way for an efficient, robust and healthy realty market. Panel discussions that brought together industry stalwarts and experts under one roof, examined the role of the Government in paving the way for a more transparent and professional sector and how the private sector has adapted to the changes.

Dr. Sean Tompkins – Global CEO, RICS, said, “Policy reforms are critical to the Indian real estate market. The UN predicts that India’s population is expected to surpass China and reach 1.5 billion by 2030. Urbanisation is a top challenge for India. Meeting the needs of urbanisation will require innovative models of urban development. The government alone cannot rise to this challenge. India would need to spend billions of dollars to address the urbanisation phenomenon. All the markets are competing for investment. India needs to promise a more professional and transparent market to attract this investment. Standards and professionalism are the bedrock to instil confidence in the market. RICS can help in this. We stand for consistency in standards and we want to use our reputation to effect policy change.”

“Real Estate (Regulation and Development Act, 2016) is a pioneering legislation and will have a transformative effect on the real estate sector. And I have absolutely no doubt that when the history of Indian real estate sector is written; it will be in two segments – Pre-RERA and Post-RERA. The pre RERA era saw the dreams, hopes and aspirations of home buyers dashed by those who exploited that dream. There was very little transparency in the housing sector. Fly by night operators created havoc. There were broken promises and incomplete projects. We have now put together an eco-system where the real estate sector is governed and buyers are empowered. RERA is a response to the dire need of consumers,” Puri commented.

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The conference discussed and debated whether the real estate sector is moving towards greater professionalism, transparency and ethical practices. While speaking at the inaugural session of the conference, Sachin Sandhir – Global MD, Emerging Business – RICS, said the business environment has clearly changed and the survival of developers will eventually depend on their ability to adapt to the changes. “The Indian real estate sector must move towards greater transparency and professionalism, if it wants to be seen on par with developed real estate markets. We are in fact seeing developers revamp their business models to fall in line with policy changes. Developers may have to incur additional cost during this transition period, but in the long run, these policy changes will transform the sector from what it is now,” Sandhir said.

John Hughes FRICS – President, RICS and Founding Partner, Hemson Consulting Ltd, who recently took charge as the President of RICS, said that professionalism is absolutely critical to instil confidence in property markets. “As RICS celebrates its 150th year in 2018, we believe RICS is redefining professionalism by setting and enforcing standards in the built environment space on a global basis,” he said.

The other speakers at the conference included Durga Shankar Mishra, IAS – Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India, Dilbag Singh Sihag – RERA Haryana Committee & Chief Town Planner, Haryana (Retd.), Govt. of Haryana, as well as industry stalwarts such as Rajeev Talwar – Chairman, NAREDCO and CEO, DLF Limited & MD, DLF Universal Limited, Vikram Goel MRICS – CEO & National Head – India, HDFC Realty Ltd, S. Sridhar FRICS – Chairman, Strategic Research Information and Capital Services Pvt. Ltd. & Former, CMD – Central Bank of India and National Housing Bank, S.K. Sayal FRICS – MD & CEO, Bharti Realty, Sunil Agarwal FRICS – Associate Dean & Director, School of Real Estate – RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University (Noida) and Amit Oberoi MRICS – National Director- Knowledge Systems, Colliers International.

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