NAREDCO Summit boasts and magnifies India’s Real Estate as Engine for Economic Growth

Delhi, October 18, 2016: National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) with APREA have organised two day Summit on Real Estate Infrastructure and Investment in Mumbai. The major focus was to highlight that infrastructure, housing and real estate are the engine of economic growth of the country because of their huge backward and forward linkages with other sectors of economy. With various initiatives and reforms introduced by the NDA Government, the housing sector is ready to attract overseas investments.

The intense deliberations involving various stakeholders from the real estate sector called for driving the mantras of transparency, predictability, partnerships, uniformity, affirmative actions, long term growth and sustainability in taking India’s real estate sector to unprecedented heights.

Mr. Rajeev Talwar, Chairman, NAREDCO and CEO, DLF Ltd., emphasised and said, “RBI should expand the scope of ‘priority lending’, to cover lending to developers involved in low-cost and affordable housing, as cheap funding is critical for developing low cost housing projects. Availability of land for development is the need of the hour for creating affordable housing and improving infrastructure. Real estate in India could evolve in the same way as even foreign markets have evolved. Commercial real estate has already started showing signs of improvement.”

The two day summit that included panel discussions, debates and presentations on various topics such as, India’s infra and real estate sector – enabling policy framework for integrated development; Growth drivers for attracting investments, on track for affordable housing and Housing for all; Where is the capital headed – India vis-à-vis other emerging markets – global institutional investors moving towards alternatives; New hotspots: Social infra, logistics and warehousing, renewable energy; Growth in AIF Funds – impact of new regulations and innovation in structures; Opportunities for AIF funds v/s FDI Fund v/s Portfolio management services.

Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), recently launched by SEBI, will be a step in the right direction for the Indian real estate market. Providing tax incentives to REITs for investment in housing, especially the affordable housing, will give much-needed fillip for investments in the sector. The secondary mortgage market needs to be promoted by the Reserve Bank of India through Mortgage Backed Securities (MBSs) and Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs) with safeguards in place to avoid a sub-prime crisis in India.

Mr. Parveen Jain, President NAREDCO and CMD, Tulip Infratech, said, “The Summit will surely be an ice-breaker to many of the financial challenges that our country is experiencing. The takeaways will provide for laying roapmap on which India can advance to garner optimum foreign investments. For every rupee invested in construction, 78 paisa is ploughed back to the GDP and a unit increase in final expenditure generates additional income five times. Looking at India’s potential, construction sector is capable of contributing 15 percent of the GDP by 2030 and employ 75 million work force. The size of Indian construction market is expected to be 1 trillion US dollars – 3rd largest globally”.

Speaking as the chief guest, Mr. Rajnish Kumar, Managing Director, National Banking Group, State Bank of India said, “Real estate like any other industry has also experienced ups and downs.” Calling for business based on sound principles, he called for time-bound completion of housing projects to check spiralling costs. There is not enough supply of land which is not in sync with demand. The cost of land, transaction fees are all contributing to high cost of property. In India, construction time is very long when compared to the west, due to which finance cost goes up. Hopefully, recent amendments with new regulatory regime, he said, banks will be willing to pass on the benefits to the home buyer. We are the cusp of a revolution change be it RERA but self-discipline is a must for the industry. Our focus must be in finding new avenues in raising funds and completing projects on time,” he said.

Private Equity (PE) investments from foreign funds in Indian realty sector rose by 33 per cent to Rs 14,974 crore during last year. However there is a huge deficit and if we are to house all citizens by 2022 then it requires an investment of US $ 2 trillion for construction of 9 crore housing units; the present shortage plus additional demand of housing by 2022. The Summit explores ways of bridging the financing gap through partnerships, asset monetisation, role of HNIs and family offices.

The recent passing of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) is set to boost investor confidence, accentuation more foreign investments into a more transparent realty sector. There has been a surge of demand for non-housing asset classes like commercial and IT/ITES space, retail, hospitality, warehousing and other income producing assets, buoyed by the enabling regulations under REITs.

Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)