Need to train, skill human-resources in real-estate sector, Anand Kumar, Chairman, Real Estate Regulatory Authority for NCT of Delhi and Chandigarh at CII Real Estate Conference

Real-estate developers need to focus on affordable housing in non-metro regions, Chairman and Managing Director, HUDCO

• Around 3 per cent of country’s land contributes to 60 per cent of GDP

• In 2023, India has emerged as the office to the world, despite muted global growth in segment

• India bought bigger apartments in 2023, Rs 1.5 crore plus price segment being the fastest selling category, for the first time ever

Around 3 per cent of country’s land contributes to 60 per cent of GDP, and there is a need for real-estate developers to venture to non-metro and smaller centres, said Shri Sanjay Kulshrestha, Chairman and Managing Director, HUDCO, at the CII Conference on Evolving Landscape of Indian Real Estate: Trends and Future Outlook on Friday at New Delhi. Citing the ambitious PM Awas Yojana, he said “We have created 3 crore households, another 2 crore households to be created,” said Mr Kulshrestha. In the interim budget 2024-25, the government has made an announcement to build 2 crore affordable houses in next five years. “Each state government – like UP, Maharashtra etc – are developing townships. In Maharashtra, a highway connects Nagpur, Mumbai and JNPT – that connects 18 districts. From 15 hours the transit time is down to 8 hours. These 18 districts are able to deliver goods to ports in four-five hours”, he added, urging the real-state developers to enter smaller untapped geographies for making affordable housing.

Emphasising the need to regulate unauthorised development, Shri Anand Kumar, Chairman, Real Estate Regulatory Authority for NCT of Delhi and Chandigarh said “If we curb unauthorized development, then we can have 5000 houses in the same land where we have 1000 houses”. Unauthorised colonies, are a pain point in areas like Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, he added. 

The event witnessed the release of CII Knight Frank Report “India Real Estate: A Decade From Now: Assessing the economic and real estate sector  potential in the next decade”.

Both Mr Kumar, and Mr Kulshrestha stressed on the need of skilling human-resources in real-estate sector. Referring to the findings of report, Mr Kulshrestha said that skill sets will have be developed for standardization, material, reiterating the need to build affordable houses, stating that most buyers today are unable to pay the cost of houses. “We need more semi-skilled workers. We have had cases where modules sent for a site were installed by the electrician incorrectly. And now, this has led to a GST issue. CII, NAREDCO, CREDAI need to get together to address this skill-shortage” added Mr Kumar.

Real-estate is the second largest employer after agriculture and is also one of the fastest growing sector, said Mr Neel C Raheja Chairman, CII National Committee on Real Estate and Housing and Group President, K Raheja Corp. “We are at the forefront of hiring people, training them and creating better livelihoods for them, he added. Today the real-estate sector is pegged to be around 7.5% of GDP, which is expected to grow to 15.5% of GDP by 2047”, said Mr Raheja.

In 2023, India has emerged as the office to the world, said Mr Sriram Khattar Vice Chairman & Managing Director, DLF Rental Business. “In the offices segment, markets had a record lead in 2023 with India’s top seven sub-markets crossing a sale of 60 million sq ft. A milestone has been achieved. This firmly establishes the country’s credentials as an office to the world. The demand came from global capability centres, in manufacturing, engineering, financial services and technology at a time when third party tech outsourcing had a rather muted year” pointed out Mr Khattar, adding that even in residential and retail segments, sales were upbeat in 2023. India also bought bigger apartments in 2023, above the price of Rs 1.5 crore being the fastest selling category, for the first time ever, he added.

The CII-Knight Frank Report makes several recommendations that include rationalising of stamp duties, which will also help make houses affordable. “States like Karnataka are already extending such benefits (rationalizing of stamp duties). Such benefits may be further extended. Unused vacant land may be extended for developers. Also, additional FAR/FSI may be provided for green buildings. Some States are already providing FSI/FAR for IGBC rated buildings. They may be extended,” said the report.

12 April 2024

New Delhi