FM Gives Push to Affordable Rental Housing for Migrant, Urban Poor
In what is being considered as a 'mega move' for the real estate sector, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on May 14 that it is giving a one-year extension to the CLSS or Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme, started in 2017 and supposed to have ended on March 31, 2020, till March 2021. "This will help push demand for affordable housing," says Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants, a leading expert on the housing and realty sector issues.
Agrees Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Housing.com, Makaan.com and PropTiger.com. "The extension of the Credit Link Subsidy Scheme by one year will prompt many of the fence sitters to buy homes at the earliest and thereby increase demand for affordable housing wherein industry has max unsold inventory across the country," Agarwala said.
"This will also help sustain employment as real estate supports close to 200 allied industries," he added. "The proposed affordable rental housing under PPP is a welcome step. This will help in effectively tackling any migrant laborers’ issues in the future," he said.
Experts said the government’s push for affordable housing has been 'unmistakable' in the last six years. Its Housing for All by 2022 project has already resulted in multiple sops and incentives. "As a consequence, there has been a significant increase in activity in affordable segment over the last few years," says Puri. As per ANAROCK research, there are currently 15.62 lakh under construction units across the top 7 cities, of which nearly 39 per cent are in the affordable segment priced below Rs 40-lakh budget.
Ravindra Sudhalkar, CEO at Reliance Home Finance said the ministry’s announcement to build rental housing complexes via public-private partnership "will go a long way in resolving housing issues for migrant workers and Urban Poor who currently live in pitiable conditions".
"The concessions promised to manufacturing units and industries to take up such projects and also allowing them to follow the BOT model similar to road projects, for constructing these rented dwellings will encourage many new players to enter the affordable housing segment," said Sudhalkar.
