Real Estate Demands Single Window Clearances From The BJP Govt

Indian real estate players have asked the BJP government to enable single window clearances for residential projects across the country. The realty players complained that the current process of obtaining a licence for a residential project is counter-productive.

“The process of project approval must be revised so that developers can launch more projects and increase supply, which will help in keeping prices down,” said Kishor Pate, chairman and managing director of Amit Enterprises Housing Ltd, a residential real estate player.

He further added that just because approvals for projects have not yet been streamlined in the country testifies the bureaucratic stronghold, and has resulted in unnecessary losses to the stakeholders involved. “The ill-effects are most visibly seen in Maharashtra, where the various constraints on real estate development have in fact played a big role reducing the pace of State-level growth,” explained Pate.

The real estate sector contributes majorly to the country’s GDP. Interestingly, a real estate player is required to get over 50 approvals from different agencies to launch a project. “This sector cannot perform optimally in a scenario where a bewildering multitude of agencies are involved in processing approvals for real estate projects,” stated Pate.

Industry experts point out that the woes of realty players doesn’t end with obtaining the approvals from multiple agencies. The procedural complications further increase once a project is cleared for development. A project can get road-blocked at any stage between construction commencement and completion because one or the other clearance or approval is being delayed by some government department or the other.

The delay in obtaining various permits even at the time of development results in unaccounted expenses which is finally bore by the innocent consumers, who have invested in the property.

“Any delay in licenses further postpones the project delivery to the end consumers. This is why investing in real estate sector is considered to be a murky business as no one knows how much time will a project take to commence and finally be completed for delivery. If the approvals are streamlined, real estate players will be able to win the confidence of the end consumers,” said another distressed real estate players.

Industry players have estimated that the prices of residential projects will come down by nearly 35% if a single window clearance mechanism is implemented.

“The government can also introduce additional incentives in the form of waiver of registration costs and stamp duties among others for land purchase for developers undertaking such projects. Other additional pay-outs for residential projects to the government, such as conversion and internal development charges, could also be waived. The policy could fix the maximum price for such projects, thus enabling them to remain truly affordable. Also, for such affordable housing projects, density and FAR norms can be increased to enable mass housing at lower costs,” said Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of JLL India sometime back.