Saturday, September 24, 2011

MCHI welcomes CM's move for sale by carpet area Makes a plea for carpet area as single measurement norm to cover sale, stamp duty and building plans; seeks single window clearance for projects and calls for speedy reforms in real estate



The Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) has welcomed Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's move to ensure sale of residential property by carpet area, and appealed to the government to extend the norm for stamp duty and clearance of plans.
"We have already initiated steps like the self regulatory Code of Conduct for developer members envisaging sale-by-carpet area," said Paras Gundecha, President of Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry.
"MCHI suggests to the government that carpet area should be the common measurement unit for even for levying stamp duty and while clearing building plans," he said.
The real estate industry at the state level as well as the national levels has been campaigning for the rationalization of stamp duty across the country, and the governments should take immediate steps in this regard, he added.
MCHI, he pointed out, has initiated several measures, including the code of conduct and a consumer redresser forum to make the dream home buyers a happy lot. "But there is a lot more to be done by the government. For instance, if the real estate development plans are cleared quickly, we could save a lot of time and even money," he said and called for implementing a single-window system for submissions and clearances of plans.
"Real estate reforms are not the job of any single agency. We as the developer representative body are always willing to do our bit, whereas much of it has to come from the government and civic bodies," he said. In this connection, the MCHI President also pointed out that there are several factors that contribute to rise in property costs.
The cost of inputs like steel, cement, labour, power, fuel and transport are always on the rise.
Adding to this is the rising cost of funding due to the interest rate hikes, he said and called for concerted efforts by all concerned to check realty prices.

Save people from rate hikes: MCHI

Calling for a fresh thinking to contain inflation, the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), has said that the latest and the 12th hike in the repo rate by RBI is bound to result in a steep jump in interest rates.
Pointing out that the Aam Aadmi or the common man has already been overburdened with ever increasing cost of living, Paras Gundecha, President of MCHI, the representative body of the developer community, said, "As we pointed out during the last rate hike, the home loan interest rates are quite high and any further increase will discourage people from borrowing. This will impact the real estate sector as sales will further slow down with the rising cost of inputs."
He added that the recent hike in petrol prices will have a cascading affect on the economy as it would prove to be a cost-push measure rather than inflation control move. This, coupled with the repo rate hike, would mean that there will be no end to price rise.
As RBI said, food inflation is close to double digit level and it shows no signs of easing despite a good monsoon. Global economy in general also does not show any signs of recovery and RBI itself sounded alarm bells to this effect.
With these, the government now needs to do a fresh thinking on inflationary control measures rather than punishing the consumer with rate hikes. Policy makers need to look at growth and employment generation, he added.

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