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New Delhi, The government might look at enhancing the scrutiny of certain class of corporates, including in terms of <keyword id="19910870" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kyc" source="keywords">KYC</keyword> requirements, as efforts continue to weed out unscrupulous elements and curb possible misdoings, according to a senior official. The matters related to KYC (Know Your Customer), including a simplified and uniform system, are still under discussion, and a committee headed by the finance secretary is looking into various aspects. The senior official on Monday said that various aspects related to having a uniform KYC are being discussed and in the case of the corporate affairs ministry, Permanent Account Number (<keyword id="19939397" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pan" source="keywords">PAN</keyword>) is being used for KYC requirements. The ministry is implementing the companies law and <keyword id="20735098" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="limited-liability-partnership" source="keywords">Limited Liability Partnership</keyword> (LLP) Act, among other legislations. Further, the official said enhanced KYC requirements might be explored for certain class of corporates. As many as 26,28,865 companies were registered in the country as on January 31, 2024, and out of the total, 16,65,438 companies, or 63 per cent were active, as per the latest official data. According to the data, a total number of 3,16,402 LLPs were active at the end of January this year. Meanwhile, the ministry-appointed panel is discussing possibilities of having a stricter regulatory regime for startups against the backdrop of instances of corporate governance concerns at some of the entities. The Company Law Committee (CLC), which was set up by the ministry in September 2019, is yet to firm its views and a final decision will be taken after receiving the panel's recommendations, the official said. Over a period of time, the ministry has been clamping down on entities, suspected of carrying out illegal activities. Last week, the <keyword id="20584362" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="financial-stability-and-development-council" source="keywords">Financial Stability and Development Council</keyword> (FSDC), chaired by Finance Minister <keyword id="19916618" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nirmala-sitharaman" source="keywords">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword>, discussed strengthening inter-regulatory coordination in the financial sector to support inclusive economic growth. The council also deliberated on prescribing uniform KYC norms, inter-usability of KYC records across the financial sector, and simplification and digitalisation of the KYC process, among others.

Govt may look at enhanced KYC requirements for certain class of corporates

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Oregon's universal basic income measure failed, with 78.8% of voters opposing the policy.</li><li>The measure proposed giving $1,600 annually to state residents, funded by a corporate tax increase.</li></ul>Oregon's effort to institute a statewide <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universal-basic-income-pros-and-cons">universal basic income</a> failed on November 5. With 73% of the total votes counted, The Associated Press reported that 78.8% of those voters opposed the policy.Measure 118 — also known as the Oregon Rebate — planned to give $1,600 annually to all residents who spend more than 200 days in the state. If it had passed, Oregon would have been the first state to implement a UBI policy giving all residents no-strings-attached cash. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-sovereign-wealth-fund-alaska-universal-basic-income-2024-9">Alaska</a> also has a program that resembles basic income, but it's structured differently than Oregon's proposal.To fund the initiative, Oregon planned to increase the corporate minimum tax rate by 3% on in-state sales exceeding $25 million.Prior to November 5, the policy was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oregon-rebate-universal-basic-income-ballot-measure-november-election-2024-8">unpopular among both Republicans and Democrats</a>, many of whom said the rebate could lead to increased prices for consumer goods and slower job growth. Major corporations also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oregon-opposition-measure-118-basic-income-corporate-tax-2024-9">spent millions to oppose the measure</a>.The opposition movement to Measure 118 raised over <a target="_blank" href="https://yesonmeasure118.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=83d9dbb6664b4a19cbb44709d&amp;id=e6a64e8b7d&amp;e=f1e85bc7c7">$16 million</a> — more than <a target="_blank" href="https://yesonmeasure118.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=83d9dbb6664b4a19cbb44709d&amp;id=9037925dd4&amp;e=f1e85bc7c7">26 times</a> what the Oregon Rebate support PAC raised.The measure failure comes as basic income programs across the country <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-basic-income-study-results-2024-7">gain popularity</a> as an approach to poverty reduction. Advocates for Oregon's measure hoped that cash assistance would create a "fairer and more just economy" for state residents.<h2 id="c8a738cb-bbf3-486c-a8b4-1675fd1c244d">Oregon's UBI policy failed, but basic income is still gaining national momentum</h2>Business Insider has previously reported on<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/basic-income-helps-people-get-jobs-earn-higher-pay-gbi-2024-9"> basic income research</a>, and state-level efforts to create lasting cash assistance programs. Oregon's ballot measure resembles basic income experiments in other <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/which-states-cities-have-guaranteed-basic-income-programs-low-income-2024-4">cities</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-with-universal-basic-income">countries</a>.Over <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/basic-income-gbi-ubi-low-income-americans-afford-housing-food-2024-5">100 guaranteed basic income pilots</a> have launched across the US, and participants told BI they used the money to pay for housing, groceries, childcare, transportation, and medical bills. These pilot programs are often funded through philanthropy, local governments, or private donors. Some states, like California and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/immigrants-new-mexico-basic-income-for-housing-healthcare-ubi-gbi2024-5">New Mexico</a>, are also making efforts to incorporate basic income into state policy.But GBI differs slightly from UBI. Although the guaranteed basic income pilots offer no-strings-attached cash, the money is limited for a set time period and selected participants, many of whom are low-income and fit specific demographics such as single parents, artists, or students.Universal basic income would give everyone ongoing cash payments, regardless of their income level. A UBI program hasn't been successfully launched in the US.During his 2020 presidential run, Democratic Candidate Andrew Yang pitched the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-basic-income-2016-8">Freedom Dividend</a>, a federal basic income policy that would give $1,000 monthly to every American over the age of 18.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alaska-permanent-fund-basic-income">The Alaska Permanent Fund</a>, which began in the 1970s, is a model similar to universal basic income. It gives state residents annual payments (which were $1,312 per person in 2022) funded through the state's oil revenue.Some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ubi-universal-basic-income-ai-risks-destroying-jobs-solutions-2024-7">tech leaders</a> have also suggested that cash assistance programs will become more necessary as artificial intelligence disrupts the job market.Still, any program like the Oregon Rebate would require funding and any major tax changes would need to be approved by voters.

Corporations raised $16 million to oppose Oregon's universal basic income plan. They won.

<keyword id="19898109" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Paytm" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Paytm" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Paytm">Paytm</keyword> has regained approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (<keyword id="19998946" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NPCI" source="keywords">NPCI</keyword>) to onboard new UPI users, marking a significant turnaround for the fintech giant. This development follows a setback earlier this year when <keyword id="20410154" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paytm-Payments-Bank-Limited" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Paytm Payments Bank Limited" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Paytm Payments Bank Limited">Paytm Payments Bank Limited</keyword> (PPBL), an associate company of Paytm, was barred from adding new users to its UPI platform due to regulatory concerns raised by the <keyword id="19899810" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reserve-Bank-of-India" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Reserve Bank of India" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Reserve Bank of India">Reserve Bank of India</keyword> (RBI). <h2>Paytm gets permission to onboard new UPI users </h2> In a regulatory filing on Tuesday evening, Paytm disclosed that NPCI granted permission for the company to resume onboarding UPI users, provided it complies with all procedural guidelines and circulars issued by the corporation. “We would like to inform you that vide letter dated October 22, 2024, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has granted approval to the Company to on-board new UPI users, with adherence to all NPCI procedural guidelines and circulars,” Paytm said in the filing. This move is seen as a relief for the company, which has been under scrutiny following the RBI’s intervention in January. The NPCI, which had previously allowed Paytm to operate as a Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) for UPI transactions, has now reinstated its ability to bring new users onto the platform, albeit with strict conditions. Paytm can continue UPI operations through its partnerships with major banking institutions, including SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, and YES Bank. The NPCI’s approval comes after a thorough review of Paytm’s compliance with procedural guidelines, including those pertaining to risk management, app branding, multi-bank participation, and data privacy. The fintech firm has been instructed to adhere to key regulatory frameworks, such as the Payments and Settlement Act of 2007 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023. This approval follows a request by Paytm’s parent company, <keyword id="20253123" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="One97-Communications" source="keywords">One97 Communications</keyword> Ltd (OCL), in August, seeking permission to resume UPI onboarding. The NPCI’s decision also reflects that Paytm has addressed concerns raised in the RBI’s directive from earlier this year, which had highlighted persistent non-compliance issues with its banking subsidiary, PPBL. On a related note, Paytm reported a strong financial performance for the quarter ending September 2024. The company posted a net profit of ₹928.3 crore, a marked improvement from the ₹290.5 crore loss it recorded during the same period last year. <h2>What had happened? </h2> For the unversed, in January 2024, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) told Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) to stop accepting deposits and processing UPI top-ups. This decision stemmed from ongoing concerns about the bank’s compliance and serious issues that needed addressing. As a result, Paytm found itself unable to onboard new UPI users, significantly disrupting its growing customer base and raising doubts about its future in the crowded <keyword id="19989657" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-payments" source="keywords">digital payments</keyword> market. However, things took a turn for the better in March 2024 when the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) gave Paytm the green light to resume UPI transactions. The catch? Paytm could only operate as a Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP), meaning it had to partner with established banks like SBI, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and YES Bank for its UPI services. While this arrangement posed some limitations, it allowed Paytm to keep moving forward and adapt to the regulatory challenges it faced in India’s digital payment landscape. (with PTI inputs)

Paytm can onboard new UPI users again, receives NPCI nod months after RBI restrictions

<keyword id="19902194" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Ambani" source="keywords">Anil Ambani</keyword>'s <keyword id="20479923" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Reliance-Group" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Reliance Group" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Reliance Group">Reliance Group</keyword> has launched the <keyword id="24017314" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Group-Corporate-Centre" source="keywords">Reliance Group Corporate Centre</keyword> (RGCC) as part of its <keyword id="24017313" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="2030-growth-strategy" source="keywords">2030 growth strategy</keyword>. "The RGCC will serve as a strategic hub, providing guidance to the Group's companies as they pursue new opportunities and technological advancements," the firm said in a statement. The core team of RGCC will include experienced leaders of the Group -- Sateesh Seth, Punit Garg, and K Raja Gopal. Garg currently leads as CEO of <keyword id="20144587" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Infrastructure" source="keywords">Reliance Infrastructure</keyword>, while K Raja Gopal has been at the helm of Reliance Power for six years. He has over 27 years experience in the power sector. Other leaders from the Group companies will also be invited to the RGCC. "The establishment of RGCC aims to harness the in-house expertise of these seasoned leaders to support the Group's forward-looking growth initiatives and cultivate a new generation of leadership for future project," the statement said. The RGCC will play a pivotal role in mentoring and developing emerging leaders, blending experience with fresh talent to propel the Group towards sustained growth. A Reliance Group spokesperson highlighted, "We are thrilled to introduce RGCC, a team of seasoned professionals with a broad spectrum expertise. This strategic move aims to steer the Group's future growth by tapping into the vast experience of these leaders, will help navigate industry challenges and capitalise on new opportunities, drive innovation, and deliver exceptional value to our customers and stakeholders. We believe RGCC will be instrumental in shaping the next phase of our Group's success." In recent developments, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and Reliance Power Ltd, key entities under the Reliance Group, have achieved zero bank debt status and outlined plans for expansion into new growth areas. Reliance Power has secured 1,270 MW of renewable power projects in Bhutan, while Reliance Infrastructure, through its subsidiary Reliance Defence Ltd, is setting up a manufacturing facility for small arms, ammunition, and explosives in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, spanning 1,000 acres. "To support these ambitious expansion plans, the companies have announced a combined fundraising effort of Rs 17,600 crore. This includes Rs 4,500 crore via preferential equity issues, Rs 7,100 crore from Varde Partners through equity-linked long-term FCCBs, and Rs 6,000 crore via Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), with Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure each targeting Rs 3,000 crore," it added.

Anil Ambani's Reliance Group sets up centre to helm 2030 growth strategy

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Affordable housing is one of America's top economic concerns heading into the election.</li><li>Detailed below is what Harris and Trump have proposed in order to address these worries.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harris-trump-presidential-election-swing-state-polls-sun-belt-2024-10">Election Day</a> is around the corner and some Americans are already casting their ballots in early voting. For many, affordable housing is a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/2024-election-and-the-economy-survey/">top</a> concern.In the third of Business Insider's five-part series for the final stretch before the election, BI is looking at the ways each candidate and their associated policies will impact the price of housing. (Read <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/market-impact-presidential-election-scenarios-trump-harris-stocks-bonds-crypto-2024-10">part 1</a> about investments, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cost-expensive-goods-price-impact-presidential-election-scenarios-trump-harris-2024-10">part 2</a> about costs.)Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have both pledged to address high prices by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/homes-free-government-land-real-estate-housing-prices-harris-trump-2024-8">boosting the supply of homes</a>. They've also floated plans to increase affordable housing while offering different viewpoints on home construction in rural and urban areas.Detailed below are four elements of the housing-price equation, and what both the Harris and Trump camps have either proposed or already done.<h2 id="1827e262-8518-4344-bd61-fda006799bbc">Increasing housing supply</h2>Harris has said she will work with the private sector and homebuilders to construct <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kamala-harris-plans-to-build-3-million-new-homes-2024-8">3 million more homes</a> by the end of her first term. She also plans to create a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-economy-proposal-25k-first-time-homebuyers-down-payent-2024-8">$40 billion federal innovation fund</a> that encourages local governments to build housing.This is in response to an ongoing US housing shortage. The US was short about <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://zillow.mediaroom.com/2024-06-18-The-U-S-is-now-short-4-5-million-homes-as-the-housing-deficit-grows">4.5 million homes</a> in 2022, a recent Zillow report found. And that same year the number of US families increased by 1.8 million, but just 1.4 million housing units were built.The Democratic candidate also said she plans to expand the existing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/lihtc.html">low-income housing tax credit</a>, which incentivizes the rehabilitation or building of housing targeted at lower-income households."Harris is trying to increase the supply of townhomes, duplexes, and condos, so that people can have an easier step onto the housing ladder than what they currently have," Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at the real estate firm Redfin, told BI.Fairweather added that Trump has talked a little bit about cutting red tape, referring to building permits and zoning laws that prevent new housing developments, but that he hasn't provided details. He also said he would <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/trump-vows-hell-cut-regs-to-build-housing-on-federal-land/">designate more federal land</a> for housing.Some experts have concerns that Trump's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-tariff-outlook-trade-policy-income-tax-consequences-fiscal-crisis-2024-7">high tariff proposals</a> on materials like steel would make it harder to build housing. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="c-link" href="https://www.piie.com/sites/default/files/2024-05/pb24-1.pdf">A report</a> published in May from the nonpartisan think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics predicts they will make construction more expensive. High construction costs have been a major factor in the US' <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-theres-a-housing-shortage-not-enough-homes-high-prices-2022-5">underbuilding of homes</a>.On the campaign trail, the former president has remarked that the housing supply will improve once <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-deport-20-million-immigrants-reduce-home-prices-rents-2024-7">millions of people are deported</a> from the country. Builders have argued that such an effort would only <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-immigration-deportations-home-building-costs-rcna172886">drive up costs</a>, as immigrant labor makes up a vital part of the construction industry.Trump has also said he would <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/06/business/undocumented-immigrants-trump-mortgage-ban/index.html">ban mortgages for undocumented immigrants</a> to decrease demand on the housing market. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/06/business/undocumented-immigrants-trump-mortgage-ban/index.html">Experts have said</a> this group makes up a small portion of the US mortgage market.<h2 id="6cfbfb8d-3edd-447a-a479-1e8d09b5bb3b">First-time homebuyer assistance</h2>Harris has proposed offering up to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harris-down-payment-assistance-plan-25000-housing-crisis-affordability-zillow-2024-8">$25,000 in down-payment assistance</a> for first-time homebuyers who have paid their rent on time for at least two years.Harris has also said she would offer tax incentives to homebuilders who prioritize "starter homes." Experts have said Harris' down-payment assistance plan would boost overall home prices because it would increase demand for mortgages <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/determining-the-price-impact-of-harris-down-payment-assistance-proposal/">without solving supply issues</a>.Although Trump has said that he <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-biden-housing-crisis-policy-rising-home-prices-apartment-rents-2024-6">would offer tax incentives</a> to first-time homebuyers, his campaign has not released details about the amount of aid.As president, Trump proposed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-biden-housing-crisis-policy-rising-home-prices-apartment-rents-2024-6">major cuts</a> to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget, including slashing housing assistance and community development aid."Qualifying income for a household to be able to afford the typical price of a home right now is six figures," Jessica Lautz, the deputy chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors, said. "That can be really impossible to imagine for someone who is a school teacher."<h2 id="622bc6c7-b5ce-4d83-9740-314714da24ed">Urban vs. rural housing</h2>In dense urban areas, Harris hopes her plan can usher in new construction by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yimbys-harris-housing-policy-walz-lower-home-prices-affordability-2024-8">removing some zoning restrictions</a> that prevent multifamily townhomes, condos, and duplexes from being built.Harris has emphasized her desire to expand housing in rural America in recent weeks. In a <a target="_blank" href="https://static.politico.com/6c/c1/6cc380c24392aef810eaf3ae648f/harris-campaign-rural-plan.pdf">memo</a> released in September, she said her plan would include $7.2 billion in infrastructure investments and potentially boost economic growth.While in the White House, Trump <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/well-protect-americas-suburbs-11597608133">opposed</a> the construction of high-density housing in single-family zoned areas, arguing that he would "save" the suburbs from the Democratic Party. It's unclear if Trump still wants to pursue similar policies.While in office in 2017, Trump proposed a budget for the 2018 fiscal year that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/05/23/heavy-cuts-to-rural-development-and-infrastructure-in-latest-trump-budget/">would have significantly cut</a> rural housing subsidies. The bulk of these proposals never came to fruition.<h2 id="e4a11dbe-840d-4cd2-960e-91b271fa111b">Action against big landlords</h2>Harris has said she will take action against "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-ban-landlords-raising-rent-algorithms-realpage-2024-8">corporate landlords</a>," and call on Congress to remove tax benefits from investors who acquire 50 or more single-family rental homes. Her planned investment in a federal innovation fund would also incentivize cities to build more rental options.This is in response to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/renter-households-cost-burdened-race.html">nearly half</a> of America's renters in 2024 being considered "cost-burdened," meaning at least 30% of their income goes to housing. In some cities, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-wage-growth-rent-increases-texas-housing-costs-florida-nyc-2024-5">higher rents are also outpacing wages</a>.While Trump has called for the construction of more housing — which would include rental units and homes — he has not provided details about how his plan would specifically impact renters. While in office, Trump <a target="_blank" href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-13945-fighting-the-spread-covid-19-providing-assistance-renters-and#:~:text=Prior%20to%20passage%20of%20the%20Coronavirus%20Aid,">implemented</a> a temporary eviction moratorium to keep Americans housed during the pandemic.

How the cost of housing is expected to change under Trump or Harris

The <keyword id="19899810" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reserve-Bank-of-India" source="keywords">Reserve Bank of India</keyword> has imposed <keyword id="21834852" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="monetary-penalties" source="keywords">monetary penalties</keyword> on three Non-Banking Financial Companies for <keyword id="20170050" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="non-compliance" source="keywords">non-compliance</keyword> with directions of <keyword id="19899808" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="RBI" source="keywords">RBI</keyword> on <keyword id="20200326" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="housing-finance-companies" source="keywords">housing finance companies</keyword>. As per the official statement from RBI on Friday, it has imposed a monetary <keyword id="19899183" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="penalty" source="keywords">penalty</keyword> of Rs 5 lakh on <keyword id="23068625" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Godrej-Housing-Finance" source="keywords">Godrej Housing Finance</keyword> Limited, Rs 5 lakh on <keyword id="20389260" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aadhar-Housing-Finance" source="keywords">Aadhar Housing Finance</keyword> Limited, and Rs 3.5 lakh on Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited. These penalties by the regulator have been imposed in the exercise of powers conferred on RBI under the provisions of Section 52A of the <keyword id="20200606" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Housing-Bank" source="keywords">National Housing Bank</keyword> Act, 1987. As per RBI, the statutory inspection of these companies was conducted by the National Housing Bank (NHB) with reference to their financial positions as of March 31, 2022. The RBI stated that based on the supervisory findings of non-compliance with RBI directions and related correspondence in that regard, a notice was issued to the companies advising them to show cause as to why a penalty should not be imposed on them for their failure to comply with the RBI directions. After considering the companies' replies to the notice, oral submissions during the personal hearing, and additional submissions made by them, the RBI found that Godrej Housing Finance Limited failed to obtain two independent valuation reports before sanctioning certain loans of Rs 75 lakh and above. For Aadhar Housing Finance Limited, the RBI stated that the company charged interest on loans for a period prior to the date of the actual disbursement of the loan/issuance of the check to certain borrowers, in contravention of RBI directions on the 'Fair Practices Code.' The penalty on Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited has been imposed because the company failed to undertake risk categorization of its customers during the financial year 2021-22, did not put in place a system for periodic review of risk categorization of accounts, and did not create a floating charge on the assets invested by it in terms of Section 29B of the NHB Act, in favor of its depositors, and register the same with the Registrar of Companies.

RBI imposes penalties on three housing finance companies for non-compliance with directions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>High housing costs, driven in large part by a shortage of homes, are keeping inflation sticky.</li><li>Trump has pledged to lower housing costs.</li></ul>Housing costs were responsible for about 2/3 of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inflation-october-cpi-consumer-price-index-federal-reserve-interest-rates-2024-11">overall inflation</a> over the past year.President-elect Donald Trump has promised to lower those costs, and economists think some of his policy proposals could do just that. The most promising are cutting federal regulations on construction, opening up federal land for housing, and lowering energy costs.However, his proposals to increase tariffs, deport millions of immigrants, and cut housing assistance could increase home prices and rents. The inflationary effects of these policies could prevent the Federal Reserve from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-rate-cuts-uncertainty-trump-presidency-inflation-tariffs-2024-11">continuing to cut interest rates</a>.Ultimately, housing policy experts and industry leaders say housing costs will largely depend on how much new supply can be delivered to the market, which is suffering from a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://zillow.mediaroom.com/2024-06-18-The-U-S-is-now-short-4-5-million-homes-as-the-housing-deficit-grows">severe shortage of homes</a>.Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team, told Business Insider in a statement that Trump "will deliver" on "lowering housing costs for all Americans."Here are the major Trump proposals and how they're expected to affect housing costs.<h2 id="83e6f785-033e-42e0-9de6-8470b9cef43d">Regulations</h2>Trump has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://singjupost.com/full-transcript-trump-speaks-at-the-economic-club-of-new-york/?singlepage=1">promised</a> to reduce federal regulations that make home building more costly "with the goal of cutting the cost of a new home in half," he said.When it comes to housing, state and local governments <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/america-build-like-tokyo-housing-crisis-doom-loop-2023-10">control the majority of regulations</a> that most inflate housing costs by limiting or slowing down construction. But federal regulations also play a role. Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, told Business Insider that he'd like Trump to roll back some of the Biden administration's energy efficiency requirements, streamline regulations under the Clean Water Act, and loosen a requirement that Federal Housing Administration borrowers' homes be up to code.But Trump hasn't always favored cutting regulations to encourage more development. During his first term, he rescinded <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/trump-housing-discrimination-suburbs.html">an Obama-era</a> rule designed to reduce racial segregation and said he would <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/29/trump-housing-policy-low-income-suburbs-386414">protect the suburbs</a> from low-income housing by allowing them to maintain strict local zoning laws. Experts say that if Trump continues to protect single-family zoning, that would further limit construction."We need all options on the table when it comes to increasing housing supply, which means allowing more density in suburbs or cities to allow more units to be produced," Tobin said.<h2 id="433280bd-da72-477a-a5b0-a9fb98993d77">Building on federal land</h2>Last year, Trump rolled out a plan to build up to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-freedom-cities-build-housing-conservatives-scoff-at-leftist-plan-2023-3">10 "freedom cities"</a> on federal land, featuring plentiful single-family homes. Since then, the president-elect has said his second administration would create "ultra-low tax and ultra-low regulation" zones on federal land for "large-scale housing construction."There's some bipartisan support for building homes on federal land, and housing experts say the proposal has the potential to increase the housing supply, particularly in Western states like Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, which have large tracts of federally owned land."Building towards affordable housing on these lands could have a transformative impact, especially because land costs are a major barrier," Maurice Page, executive director of the nonpartisan Nevada Housing Coalition, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/homes-free-government-land-real-estate-housing-prices-harris-trump-2024-8">recently told Business Insider</a>.<h2 id="3071e368-bbc9-4dcc-9220-fad6b12c7c9f">Energy costs</h2>Vice President-elect JD Vance <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pPCCh_t4h8">has promised</a> that the Trump administration would boost home building in part by drilling for more oil and making energy cheaper. Construction industry experts and economists say lower energy costs wouldn't hurt affordability but likely <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-drilling-oil-housing-rent-home-prices-construction-2024-10">wouldn't significantly increase construction or bring housing costs down</a>."Energy prices are significant, but they're not as significant as many other inputs," Anirban Basu, chief economist at the construction industry trade group Associated Builders and Contractors, recently told Business Insider.<h2 id="0aab8f5a-24a4-4d4b-af03-aa4d6c484f8b">Interest rates</h2>Trump has repeatedly said that his administration would tame inflation and, therefore, lower interest rates. During <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://singjupost.com/full-transcript-trump-speaks-at-the-economic-club-of-new-york/?singlepage=1">a speech</a> at the Economic Club of New York in September he said he'd bring mortgage interest rates down to 3% or lower. His say over rates is limited; the Federal Reserve controls interest rates and operates <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/business/economy/trump-interest-rates-fed.html">independently of the president</a>.Tobin said he expects mortgage rates will settle into a "new normal" of about 5 to 5.5% by 2026, lower than the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-30-year-fixed-rate-mortgage-rise-four-month-high-679-2024-11-07/">current 30-year fixed rate of 6.79%</a> but above the prepandemic average. "It's going to be a bumpy ride down," he added, noting that mortgage rates <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/11/business/economy/mortgage-rates-trump-inflation.html">recently rose</a> to a four-month high even as the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rates.Many economists say that Trump's proposals to cut taxes, impose significant new tariffs on imports, and deport millions of immigrants <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-election-win-high-inflation-risk-tariffs-deportations-taxes-2024-11">would have an inflationary effect</a> and discourage the Federal Reserve — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-inflation-interest-rates-fed-rate-cuts-fomc-meeting-outlook-2024-11">whose independence</a> Trump has threatened — from further cutting rates.When it comes to housing costs, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/buying-home-not-easier-interest-rate-cuts-prices-rent-crisis-2024-8">many economists say</a> that even if mortgage rates come down, that could spur additional demand for housing, sending prices further up.<h2 id="4cba3ba3-082c-4c85-9e1e-0317e4daa343">Tariffs</h2>Trump <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/us/politics/trump-enthusiasm-tariffs.html">campaigned</a> on imposing a 60% tax on products from China and 10 to 20% tariffs on most other foreign goods. These include key building materials like lumber and steel, which make up a significant portion of the cost of building a home. Tariffs would also impact the prices of other materials and finished products, like air conditioning units and garage doors.Biden has kept some of those tariffs in place and even <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/12/07/1061329725/why-is-the-biden-administration-increasing-the-cost-of-building-houses">raised taxes on Canadian softwood lumber</a>, which is crucial to the US home-building industry. Expanding the tariffs further would likely drive up building costs."If there are huge tariffs getting thrown around, that really hurts home builders," Ben Metcalf, a housing policy expert at UC Berkeley, told Business Insider. "those could be huge drags on cost and therefore on supply."<h2 id="3fbffb09-3764-4c37-b965-c4165bd9b487">Mass deportations</h2>Trump and Vance have repeatedly argued that their plans to deport millions of immigrants will alleviate housing affordability issues by lowering demand.But many <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-said-migrants-to-blame-for-expensive-homes-wrong-2024-8">economists</a> <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/business/economy/trump-housing-crisis-deportations.html">disagree</a> and posit that mass deportations would actually inflate housing costs. The construction industry is already short around <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-crisis-national-shortage-construction-workers-job-demand-2024-5">500,000 workers</a>, and a further reduction in the labor force would <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-deportations-immigration-homebuilders-remove-construction-workers-spike-costs-2024-11">slow down construction and inflate prices even more</a>. Immigrants are a key part of building housing as they make up <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://eyeonhousing.org/2023/12/immigrant-share-in-construction-highest-on-record/">about a quarter</a> of the construction workforce. An <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" class="" href="https://www.constructiondive.com/news/construction-workers-undocumented-presidential-election/729556/#:~:text=Immigrants%20entering%20the%20country%20illegally,all%20workers%20in%20construction%20jobs.">estimated 15 to 23%</a> of that overall workforce are undocumented immigrants."Just even the talk of mass deportations could send a chill through the entire immigrant employment sector," Tobin said. "Anything that constricts labor in the country will have an impact on us meeting those housing goals over the next few years."<h2 id="f3107caf-cafa-4d60-ad2b-15ff8c5770a5">Federal housing assistance</h2>During his first term, Trump repeatedly proposed major cuts to housing assistance for households with low incomes or members with disabilities. In <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-administration-budgets-and-programs-for-people-of-limited-means/#housing-and-rental-assistance">each of his annual budgets</a>, he proposed stripping funding from many rental and homeownership assistance programs, including significantly cutting back on housing vouchers and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/04/25/hud-secretary-ben-carson-to-propose-raising-rent-for-low-income-americans-receiving-federal-housing-subsidies/">raising rent on low-income households</a> that receive federal aid.All of Trump's budgets also proposed dramatically cutting federal funding for programs that help build and renovate affordable housing. While Congress didn't approve those cuts, policy experts expect the next Trump administration to pursue the same goals. This would make it harder for lower-income Americans to afford homes and slow down affordable housing construction."I just don't think there's any interest by Trump or by a Republican Congress in investing in certain traditional HUD programs and investments," Metcalf said.

4 ways Trump's housing plans are expected to hurt homebuyers and 3 ways they could help

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Housing shortages and affordability problems are especially acute in America's swing states.</li><li>Arizona's population is surging and Pennsylvania's is shrinking; neither can build enough homes.</li></ul>Rising home prices and rents are weighing on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rent-housing-affordability-swing-state-voters-apartments-presidential-race-redfin-2024-9">voters' minds</a> this election season.Renters and homeowners in the handful of swing states that will likely determine the US presidential election — which include Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada — have been disproportionately hit by rising housing costs, caused by decades of underbuilding, a surge in new residents, high construction costs, and red tape.Since 2017, "in 6 of the 7 states, home prices have risen faster than the national average, and the national average is already quite high," Alex Horowitz, director of Pew's Housing Policy Project, told Business Insider, citing data from Zillow and Apartment List. "In all 7 states, rent growth has been higher than the national average."Two swing states — Arizona and Pennsylvania — exemplify in their own ways how housing markets across the country have failed to address the key issue they face: too few homes.In Arizona, sprawling subdivisions can only sprawl so far, and years of population growth have outstripped supply. While Pennsylvania's population shrank in recent years, it's still struggling to dig itself out of a construction worker shortage after years of underbuilding.<h2 id="1a859852-557b-4304-892a-c09040f80a6d">Zoning restricts housing for Arizona's population boom</h2>For years, Arizona has been among the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.newsweek.com/population-map-reveals-fastest-growing-us-states-this-century-1904724">fastest-growing</a> states in the country. Sprawling subdivisions helped accommodate the growing population and were enough to keep housing costs relatively low through the early 2010s.The pandemic supercharged pressure on the housing market. Since 2020, Arizona has welcomed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/AZ/PST045223">hundreds of thousands of new residents</a>. As demand spiked, snarled supply chains helped inflate construction costs. Since January 2020, home prices in Arizona have risen by 55%, compared to a national average of 45%, while rents have jumped 27%, compared to a national average of 22%, Horowitz said.<div type="image" title="A worker operates machinery during construction at a housing development in the Phoenix suburbs of Queen Creek, one of the fastest-growing communities in Arizona." height="832" width="1280" msid="114584579" hostid="261" sizebytes="114024"></div>Housing experts blame some of Arizona's home shortage on the restrictive zoning laws in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/sites/default/files/exclusionary_zoning_legal_barrier_to_affordable_housing.pdf">many of its cities and suburbs</a>, which tend to allow only large-lot, detached single-family homes. These homes are generally more expensive than denser housing and require far more land."The obvious land that's proximate to job centers is scarcer and scarcer after we've had 20 or 30 years of significant home building" in Arizona, Ben Metcalf, managing director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, told Business Insider.At the same time, the state is running out of water to support its new homes and residents. State officials <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/01/climate/arizona-phoenix-permits-housing-water.html">announced</a> last year that Arizona doesn't have enough groundwater to support all the future homes that have been approved for building in the Phoenix area.<h2 id="807b5340-f3a6-4d5d-a378-25a3d54b550f">Pennsylvania is up against construction worker shortages amid a shrinking population</h2>Two thousand miles away, in Pennsylvania, voters are also facing a housing shortage. Home prices have risen 39% since January 2020, Horowitz noted, even though the state's population is shrinking. Pennsylvania has lost <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pennlive.com/news/2024/03/amid-pockets-of-growth-pennsylvania-population-declines-worsen.html">an estimated 41,000 people</a> since 2020.Like many other states, Pennsylvania has underbuilt housing since the 2008 financial crisis, which tanked the housing market. In recent years, it's struggled with issues that plague the rest of the country, including elevated building material costs and high interest rates that make capital more expensive.But it's also dealing with a particularly severe construction worker shortage. Bureau of Labor Statistics data <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PACONS">shows</a> that after growing steadily during the 2010s, the total number of construction employees in Pennsylvania has plateaued since bouncing back after the pandemic recession, while construction jobs continue to boom in the nation as a whole.Horowitz noted that Pennsylvania ranked 48th out of the 50 states for homes permitted from 2017 to 2023."The aging workforce is a very big problem in residential construction in a place like Pennsylvania," Metcalf said, adding that restrictive federal immigration policies have limited the construction workforce, which is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://qz.com/immigrants-make-up-more-of-the-us-construction-labor-fo-1851118320">disproportionately made up of immigrants</a>.Horowitz noted that, like in Arizona, restrictive zoning policies are also preventing the construction of denser, cheaper housing in the state's suburban and exurban communities.Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro directed his administration in September to develop a statewide housing action plan. "While Governor Shapiro has made real progress in his first two years, he knows more needs to be done to fix the housing shortage and cut costs for Pennsylvanians," the administration spokesperson said.<h2 id="34ab4d96-8ac9-4d17-ba48-b2df8f02ca74">Housing policy on the campaign trail</h2>Swing-state voters list <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/09/09/issues-and-the-2024-election/">the economy</a> as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-harris-swing-state-poll-october-2024-c3ca9414">their top issue</a> in this election. But "when you drill down, it is about affording to live and pay their rent and pay their mortgages," Tucson Mayor Regina Romero told Business Insider. "Affordable opportunities help families stop worrying about where they're going to live next or sleep next and start worrying about how they can thrive in our economy."Housing affordability has become such an acute problem that Vice President Kamala Harris <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kamala-harris-plans-to-build-3-million-new-homes-2024-8">has promised to</a> build 3 million new homes over her first term, send $25,000 in downpayment assistance to first-time homebuyers, and spend billions on housing innovation.Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-biden-housing-crisis-policy-rising-home-prices-apartment-rents-2024-6">has said</a> he'll bring housing costs down by cutting interest rates — though the Federal Reserve, which controls rates, operates independently of the government. He's also promised to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/business/economy/trump-housing-crisis-deportations.html">deport millions of immigrants</a> to free up housing and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-freedom-cities-build-housing-conservatives-scoff-at-leftist-plan-2023-3">open up federal land</a> for home construction.To be sure, not all Americans are being adversely impacted by rising rents and home prices. Many homeowners who locked in relatively low mortgage rates years ago have watched their home equity soar as prices have skyrocketed.Renters are almost twice as likely as homeowners to say that housing affordability is a top-three issue in deciding who to vote for in this election, a recent <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.redfin.com/news/renters-vs-homeowners-housing-affordability-election/">Redfin survey found</a>. Almost a quarter of potential first-time homebuyers say they're waiting until after the election to buy a home, with many interested in Harris' downpayment support, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.redfin.com/news/homebuying-delay-election-survey-2024/">Redfin also reported</a>.Noah Sheidlower contributed reporting.

2 swing states show why the US is struggling to build enough houses

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Much of the office market may be mired in a downturn, but demand has been strong for high-end space.</li><li>New office construction has dropped off sharply, leading to a potential upcoming shortage.</li></ul>Office vacancy is at a record high in Washington, DC, and the city is regarded as one of the nation's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-federal-government-is-cutting-back-its-office-footprint-2023-6">most challenged</a> markets – in part because of its heavy reliance on federal tenants that have continued to slim down their spaces.Yet Hilary Goldfarb, a senior managing director at Rockefeller Development who leads the company's Washington, DC, operations, has little doubt about the sleek 400,000-square-foot office property her firm is raising at 600 Fifth St.When the building is completed in mid-2026, Goldfarb says she is "confident it will be full.""This is not hope as a strategy," she added, noting that half of the project was pre-leased to the law firm Crowell &amp; Morning. "It's based on real data and real activity."Across the country, major office markets from New York to San Francisco have been pummeled by the lasting popularity of remote and hybrid work. Newly built, high-end offices, however, are finding takers.That demand has persisted even as office construction has been stifled by higher interest rates and inflation, which have pushed up costs. Worries over the health of the office market have also made lenders reluctant to finance new development.About 30 million square feet of new office space will be completed this year in the US, roughly half of what was built in 2019, before the pandemic, says CBRE, the real estate services firm. In 2025, deliveries will fall even further, to 14 million square feet, CBRE projects.While the overall office market is awash in hundreds of millions of square feet of empty space, CBRE predicts that vacancy in the market's upper segment will drop to pre-pandemic levels by 2027 – around the same time projects that are breaking ground now will be ready.A growing number of office developers have taken notice and see a budding shortage they are eager to cater to. Large office tenants, who often plan their space decisions years in advance, have also begun to recognize that while space options may abound now, they are likely to vanish in the coming years – raising interest in new development."The last six, seven months, there's not just people coming kicking the tires, there's people that are really looking to engage," said Scott Rechler, the CEO of RXR Realty, referring to what he says is growing tenant interest in 175 Park Ave., a 2.8-million-square-foot skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill that developers RXR and TF Cornerstone are planning next to Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan.The group now aims to begin construction on the more than $4 billion, 1,575-foot-tall tower midway through 2025 and with significantly less pre-leasing than originally planned because of their growing confidence in demand. Asking rents at the tower will be above $200 per square foot, among the highest ever sought in the city."There used to be a point where we thought we would need to pre-lease all of it," Rechler said. "Now, we think that at 500,000 feet, it's probably enough to get going."Rechler said that interest in elite new space had been stoked by other high-end offerings in the market, such as One Vanderbilt, a recently built nearby tower, JPMorgan's new headquarters at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-nyc-headquarters-design-270-park-avenue-request-proposals-2021-4">270 Park Ave.</a>, and a planned skyscraper at 350 Park Ave. that will house the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ken-griffin-citadel-office-space-real-estate-fifth-avenue-2024-8">investment firm Citadel</a>."If your competitors have a building like that that they're identified with and you're trying to be on a parallel path, you're going to say I want to be in a space at the same level or better," Rechler said.<div type="image" title="Large conference room and office space overlooking Midtown Manhattan." height="1852" width="5000" msid="113908775" hostid="261" sizebytes="387772"></div><h2 id="5d3faa99-284e-4185-804a-807a2344cd11">Other developers are laying plans for new towers</h2>The large development firm Related Companies, meanwhile, says that four office towers it has built with Oxford Properties as part of their Hudson Yards mega-project, are now 99% full. The team is readying to begin a new 45-story, 1.1-million-square-foot office property called 70 Hudson Yards next year."We think we're going to be one of the only new buildings in '27, '28 when there's going to be no new supply," Philippe Visser, Related's president of office development, said.Even as overall office vacancy is now at 15.1% in Manhattan, according to CBRE, Visser sees little competition between the overwhelming majority of that empty space and Hudson Yards, where a number of major corporate names have migrated in recent years to take occupancy of newly built buildings. Tenants include Wells Fargo, KKR, BlackRock, Meta, and L'Oréal."All these successful companies who are looking for really dynamic office space want new construction," Visser said.70 Hudson Yards will feature an array of state-of-the-art features, including a triple-paned glass facade, which greatly enhances the insulating properties of glass exteriors and will make the building more energy efficient and appealing to sustainability-conscious office users.In Lower Manhattan, Larry Silverstein hinted that he is close to moving ahead with plans to erect the final office skyscraper at the World Trade Center, a 2.8 million-square-foot tower designed by architect Norman Foster.Rumors abound that Silverstein is close to signing a large lease with American Express that would allow the project to proceed."Just stay tuned" was all Silverstein would say about the possible deal at the tower, 2 World Trade Center.Silverstein said he was certain other tenants would fill up the remainder of the building's available space once construction is underway."When you put everything this buildings has all together, it's superior," Silverstein said. "It never left my mind that someday we would succeed in accomplishing Tower 2 – and that's where we are today."Manhattan is particularly conducive to new construction in that it has both a large captive audience of corporate office users and a deep inventory of old, outdated office properties that have fallen out of favor.But because there is so little office construction on the horizon nationally, builders have begun to lay similar plans in other markets with similar dynamics.Visser, for instance, says Related expects to break ground on a new 40-story, 925,000-square-foot office tower at 725 W. Randolph St. in Chicago by next year.Although that city is also awash in available space, the building would be one of the only available newly built office properties in the Fulton Market neighborhood, a desirable sub-district in the city's West Loop that is known for its retail and restaurants, he said.Related Ross, a spinoff development firm launched earlier this year by Related's founder, Stephen Ross, is about to begin construction on 15 City Place, a nearly 500,000-square-foot office building in West Palm Beach, Florida. The project is about 70% pre-leased to an undisclosed roster of tenants, according to Jordan Rathlev, a senior vice president of development at the company.Rathlev said he recently received a space inquiry from a financial technology firm that is seeking at least 300,000 square feet – far more than 15 City Place can accommodate. The interest from that tenant and others has given a boost to the company's ambitions to begin building a neighboring office property called 10 City Place that will also be around 500,000 square feet in size."The intent is that they're both going at the same time," Rathlev said, indicating Related's hope that it will sign enough anchor tenancy at 10 City Place to build it and 15 City Place simultaneously.<h2 id="70c57a95-0968-4007-a21d-96efb55c9ff3">A tale of two office markets</h2>There is a yawning gap between the health of top tier office space and the wider market, according to data from CBRE.The firm labels new and heavily renovated spaces that meet a host of quality measures as "prime" – a segment that encompasses only 8% of overall office inventory nationally.A net total of 49.3 million square feet of prime space was absorbed between 2020 and the first quarter of 2024, according to CBRE. Around 170.3 million square feet of net vacancy accrued in the rest of the office market during that same period.Overall office vacancy nationally was 19.1% in June, close to a record level. Prime vacancy was 15.5% and CBRE forecasts that figure will drop by almost half, to 8.2% by 2027, its pre-pandemic average."We believe that this absorption estimate is conservative, and the prime vacancy rate could return to its pre-pandemic level sooner given continued job growth," Jessica Morin, CBRE's director of US office research, said.These top-of-the-market spaces, which charged a 60% premium before the pandemic, are now 84% more expensive than competing spaces.With little supply, that differential could grow."8.2% is a healthy prime market and we expect rent growth in this tranche," Morin said.Driving the solid metrics is a lack of new supply.While a total of 44 million square feet of office space is presently under construction, only about 17.3 million square feet of it, 39% of the total, is considered prime, according to CBRE. 8 million square feet of that is pre-leased, meaning that there is only about 10 million square feet of upcoming available top quality space.<h2 id="ccbe14d6-6f15-40b7-b453-f934e9df0594">Financing remains a sticking point</h2>Even with the tailwinds, financing high end office construction remains a challenge. Banks have grown wary of lending to office projects, even those that are likely to be a financial success, because of broader concerns around declining values, increased foreclosures, and potential financial losses in the sector.Rechler said that RXR was considering "alternative strategies" to arrange financing for 175 Park Ave., as a result."The scale of this project is of a level, I'm not sure you'd be able to get enough traditional banks, as an example, to be a lender," Rechler said.Rechler said RXR has explored other routes to arrange the billions of dollars of debt necessary to fund 175 Park Ave.'s construction, including the municipal bond market, in part because the project includes $500 million of transit upgrades to Grand Central Terminal."I feel good," Rechler said, "that we'll have the right combination of pre-leasing and financing to begin next year."

What office meltdown? Developers see a shortage of high-end space and are rushing to build it. 

Our homes should make us feel safe. A decent home is a refuge from the outside world, a relatively fixed point where people can drop their vigilance. Most of us need the security of home to stay balanced in the face of an unstable, sometimes frightening world.But Americans are increasingly less safe in their own homes. This isn't because of a sudden surge in crime (<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-murder-rate-dropped-by-13-percent-in-2023">which is actually declining in most places</a>) but because of climate and geography.Compared with much of the rest of the country, many of America's cities are well situated to weather the coming decades of the climate crisis. Their density makes them <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/passive-house-energy-efficient-lower-utility-bills-2023-7">more energy-efficient</a> — partly because residents tend to drive less and apartments are easier to keep cool than single-family homes. They also have more robust emergency-services infrastructure than rural areas and are situated further from fire-prone wooded areas.But as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yimbys-winning-lower-house-prices-rents-build-more-homes-neighborhoods-2023-9">local zoning and resident opposition</a> have made it nearly impossible to build housing in these cities, would-be residents are pushed into more treacherous areas. In some parts of the country, the only affordable homes for middle-class households are in areas prone to disasters. The people who move to those high-risk areas are being robbed of the security that everyone should be able to enjoy in their homes. Because of our collective refusal to build more housing where it is most needed, millions of people live with elevated climate risk.Until we act, more of those people are fated to lose their homes — or their lives.<h2>The heat is on</h2>As is increasingly routine, extreme heat has been roasting much of the United States this summer. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.azfamily.com/2024/07/05/heatwave-hell-phoenix-high-temp-soars-118-shattering-previous-record/">Phoenix hit a daily high of 118 degrees</a> in June, breaking a 40-year-old record. In Texas, a broiling July heat wave caused power outages for millions of people and clogged hospitals with patients who could not be safely discharged to homes that lacked air conditioning. These heat waves have deadly consequences: <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dangers-extreme-summer-heat-united-states-poverty-air-conditioning-access-2023-8">Extreme heat killed 2,302 Americans</a> in 2023 alone.While many parts of the country have faced high temperatures this year, the danger has not been evenly distributed. Where I live, across the bay from San Francisco, thermometers climbed into the mid-80s — not exactly pleasant for perspiration-prone Ashkenazi men such as myself, but tolerable. Further-inland locales like California's fast-growing Central Valley, on the other hand, have been getting positively scorched. On the West Coast, the safest place to be in a heat wave tends to be near the Pacific Ocean. But that's not where people are moving. Thanks to the city's anemic new-housing growth, the population of San Francisco (average daily high in July: 66 degrees) has stagnated for years while home prices have soared. Growth has been faster and more consistent in white-hot cities like Fresno (98 degrees), Sacramento (93 degrees), and Bakersfield (98 degrees), where housing is more abundant but deadly heat is far more common. The Golden State's land-use patterns are putting middle-class and working-class households at a higher risk of exposure to extreme, possibly fatal, heat. This split is a miniature version of the trend playing out across the US: Migration is pushing more people into harm's way. The fastest-growing states in the country are in the Sun Belt: Texas, Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. The Sun Belt also happens to be the part of the country <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/real-estate-housing-market-prediction-sun-belt-climate-change-zelman-2024-7">most at risk of extreme heat</a> as the climate crisis gets worse. There were <a target="_blank" href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/12/texas-heat-deaths-2023-record-climate-change/">more than 300 heat-related deaths in Texas</a> last year. And that's to say nothing of the risk Gulf states face from hurricanes, which climate change has similarly exacerbated.The shift to the Sun Belt isn't part of some sublimated death drive or a desire to test the limits of modern sunscreen. The reason for the mass movement is pretty simple: People are going where they can afford housing. Compare homebuilding in Houston (average daily July high of 95 degrees) with homebuilding in San Francisco. I've found that <a target="_blank" href="https://cayimby.org/reports/housing-first/">Houston had roughly three times as many housing starts per capita in 2021 as San Francisco</a>, and even in parts of the past decade where Houston's housing starts dipped a bit, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/houston-building-cheap-new-starter-homes-real-estate-construction-lots-2024-1">they were still significantly higher than San Francisco's</a>. No wonder, then, that a one-bedroom apartment in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/austin-real-estate-housing-market-prices-houston-zoning-affordable-2023-8">Houston costs half as much</a> as one in San Francisco, even though Houston has increased its population by more than 200,000 residents since 2010. Houston's ability to build more housing than San Francisco comes down to the rules the two cities impose on the construction of new housing. The same could be said of much of the rest of the Sun Belt. Houston is an extreme example because it literally does not have a zoning code, but in general, Sun Belt cities tend to have much looser zoning and permitting rules than high-cost California cities.Even within many states, new housing tends to get built in the areas most vulnerable to climate disasters. Once again, take California: San Francisco and other exclusionary coastal towns block new housing, so much of the state's homebuilding takes the form of single-family sprawl deep into extremely hot inland, low-lying areas or into what's called the <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=92a86309da8af9c28c10ca5b6aa5757a3e91f2f44f8b02e2d254a15f222499c9&amp;postID=66c33fc47d61a86c186c52d0&amp;postSlug=affordable-home-house-prices-americans-danger-death-climate-change-2024-8&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41598-022-09707-7">wildland-urban interface</a>: the part of the state where forest fires crash up against human habitation, with deadly results. Ironically, some of this allocation is done under the cover of environmentalism. The California Environmental Quality Act requires developers to go through a convoluted environmental-review process to get their projects approved. While California's legislature has spent the past few years expanding the types of projects that are exempt from the law, it's still a powerful tool that not-in-my-backyarders, or NIMBYs, can use to block development in their neighborhoods. Unsurprisingly, the threat of CEQA litigation tends to loom largest in affluent, exclusive communities; the risk of litigation is lowest in sparsely populated areas, where there are few residents to complain about new housing. Thus the law actually creates an incentive to concentrate development in the wildland-urban interface, away from the more densely populated areas that also happen to be more fire-resistant.To be sure, income and climate risk are not perfectly correlated; <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/million-nantucket-beach-house-sold-200k-after-erosion-swallows-land-2024-7">several wealthy enclaves</a> are at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nantucket-homes-wealthy-falling-into-ocean-erosion-climate-2024-5">risk of coastal erosion</a>. And a fair amount of high-value real estate is nestled in the wildland-urban interface, as the San Francisco Bay Area learned during the 1991 Oakland Hills fires and as Los Angeles learned during the 2018 Woolsey fire that chewed up Malibu. But America's housing shortage tends to distribute climate-related suffering along class lines. Even if they manage to avoid sudden catastrophes, people who have been pushed out to the urban periphery may well face subtler long-term consequences. If living in a wildfire-prone area doesn't kill you or destroy your house, it can still increase your exposure to toxic smoke, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/symptoms-poor-air-quality-exposure-harms-health-wildfire-smoke">which can lead to serious respiratory and cardiovascular conditions</a>. Beyond the risks from heat, fire, and smoke inhalation are the more quotidian harms of being geographically cut off from the center of a metropolitan area. In 2010, nearly 10% of Americans lived in areas where it would take them more than an hour to reach a trauma-care center in the event of an emergency. For those who work in the central city, even the long commute from the exurbs can be dangerous. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/public-transportation-commuting-health-driving-2015-2">Long car commutes</a> have been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/commuting-by-car-is-hurting-peoples-mental-health-2023-7">associated with higher blood pressure</a>, and that's to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ways-your-commute-is-slowly-killing-you-2016-2">say nothing of the other risks</a> associated with a long ride in a country where traffic collisions <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vehicle-related-deaths-increase-car-safety-pedestrians-cyclists-2023-9">kill more than 40,000 people each year</a>. If we could somehow wish away the large and growing risk of climate disasters, sprawl would still be bad for American public health.<h2>What makes a home</h2>In his book about Hurricane Katrina, the historian Andy Horowitz writes that "disasters are less discrete events than they are contingent processes." The true disaster is not the hurricane on its own but how the hurricane collides with society, politics, and infrastructure. A hurricane of a certain strength, speed, and rainfall can have drastically different effects depending on whether it makes landfall in an uninhabited area, a thoroughly prepared city, or a city with inadequate levees, entrenched patterns of residential segregation, and an ill-equipped emergency-response system.Similarly, the safety of our communities is directly tied to choices about where, how, and why we build them. Sure, small things like doing controlled burns, making air conditioning more widely available, and building better evacuation routes can reduce some of the dangers created by pushing people out to the periphery. But we have a moral imperative to allow more homebuilding in the parts of the country that are already well positioned to accept more people. While NIMBYs have cleverly cited environmental concerns to block housing development in these areas, making it possible for more people to live in them is essential to sustainably and safely growing our country for the next generation.<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/ned-resnikoff">Ned Resnikoff</a> is the policy director of California YIMBY and co-leader of the Metropolitan Abundance Project.

The deadly cost of America's housing crisis

As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the Union <keyword id="19955368" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="budget-2024" source="keywords">Budget 2024</keyword>, all eyes were on the <keyword id="20024321" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="housing-sector" source="keywords">housing sector</keyword>, which has been a focal point for both developers and <keyword id="19907145" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="homebuyers" source="keywords">homebuyers</keyword>. Expectations were high for increased deduction limits on home loan interest repayments, higher principal repayment deductions, and more robust incentives for first-time homebuyers. Last year's budget focused on increasing <keyword id="20254620" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="affordable-housing" source="keywords">affordable housing</keyword> through the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (<keyword id="19945794" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="PMAY" source="keywords">PMAY</keyword>), with a significant allocation to achieve the goal of "Housing for All." The <keyword id="20152263" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="real-estate-sector" source="keywords">real estate sector</keyword> had previously seen incentives for developers building affordable housing, such as tax holidays under Section 80IBA and increased allocation through the SWAMIH fund to improve liquidity for stressed projects. <h2>Major announcements in Budget 2024</h2>As per FM Sitharaman's 2024 Budget announcements, PMAY is set to add an additional 3 crore affordable housing — houses priced under Rs 40 lakh — in rural and urban sections of India. This will be accomplished with Rs 10 lakh crores, which includes assistance of Rs 2.2 lakh crores over the next five years. A provision of <keyword id="21240797" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="interest-subsidy" source="keywords">interest subsidy</keyword> to facilitate loans at affordable rates is also envisaged, the FM noted in her speech. “This is certainly pertinent – the affordable homes category has been seeing a decline in overall sales since the pandemic, to approximately 19% in H1 2024 from over 38% in the period before the pandemic in 2019,” notes Anuj Puri, Chairman of ANAROCK Group. “Consequently, this segment’s percentage share of the total housing supply in the top 7 cities also fell to 18% in H1 2024 from nearly 40% in 2019. Any boost to this vital segment is therefore welcome.” As per December 2023 reports, 65% of houses under PMAY-Urban had been completed and delivered to beneficiaries since the scheme was introduced in 2015. This amounts to over 78 lakh pucca houses out of the 1.18 crore sanctioned. The new addition to PMAY will thus attempt to more than triple the quadruple the number. <h2>Tax reliefs and transparent rental policies</h2>This year, the sector expected further <keyword id="20345361" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tax-relief" source="keywords">tax relief</keyword> measures for homebuyers and developers. Key demands are aplenty, including increasing the deduction limit for home loan interest repayment from the current Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 3-4 lakhs for self-occupied properties, reintroducing tax exemptions for first-time homebuyers, standardising the definition of "Affordable Housing", and reducing GST on construction materials like cement and steel. However, there has been only disappointments on this front based on the announcements so far. However, in terms of the tax changes, the Budget has proposed a massive reduction in rental matters for the individual. While the current tax deducted at source (TDS) for Payment of rent by individuals or HUF under Section 194-IB stands at 5%, the new budget is set to bring this down to 2%, effective from October 1, 2024. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111946291" title="Union Budget 2024-25 key highlights: Angel tax to be scraped" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Further, the government has promised to enable and implement policies and regulations for efficient and transparent <keyword id="20071228" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rental-housing" source="keywords">rental housing</keyword> markets with enhanced availability. <h2>Additional initiatives</h2>Further, dormitory-style accommodations have also been announced for industrial workers in public-private partnership mode with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support and commitment from anchor industries. VGF is a scheme that helps support important infrastructure projects that may not be financially viable, through grants that total up to 20% of the total project cost. The FM also announced that policies and regulations for efficient and transparent rental housing markets with enhanced availability will be put in place, to ease the rental and home-owning process. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111953230" title="Union Budget 2024-25: Mobile Phones to get cheaper, as FM Nirmala Sitharaman reduces basic customs duty to 15%" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Markets are optimistic in the aftermath of these announcements, with many housing finance companies recording healthy gains since the speech. Puri notes that the renewed focus on rural and urban job creation, if effective, may provide some boost to affordable housing in even tier 2 and 3 cities. “The Finance Minister's allocation of ₹10 lakh crore to help 1 crore poor middle-class families buy houses will boost the demand for residential properties,” remarks Divyam Mour, Research Analyst at Samco Securities. ”This funding, along with interest subsidies, will greatly benefit real estate developers like DLF, Macrotech Developers, NBCC, and Sunteck Realty, as well as housing finance companies focused on the lower and middle classes, such as Aadhar Housing Finance, Aptus Value Housing Finance, and Aavas Financiers.”

Budget 2024: More affordable housing, lowered rent TDS — here’s what will change for the housing sector this year

<ul class="summary-list"><li>OpenAI may be planning a corporate restructuring within the year.</li><li>Once a nonprofit that "benefits all of humanity," OpenAI shifted to a "capped-profit" model in 2019.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-openai-raising-money-strawberry-after-rough-start-year-2024-9">Sam Altman</a> founded OpenAI in 2015 with a lofty mission: to develop artificial general intelligence that "benefits all of humanity."He chose to be a nonprofit to support that mission.But as the company gets closer to developing artificial general intelligence, a still mostly theoretical version of AI that can reason as well as humans, and the money from excited investors pours in, some are worried Altman is losing sight of the "benefits all of humanity" part of the goal.It's been a gradual but perhaps inevitable shift.OpenAI announced in 2019 that it was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-mulls-turning-openai-into-a-regular-company-2024-5">adding a for-profit arm</a> — to help fund its nonprofit mission — but that true to its original spirit, the company would limit the profits investors could take home."We want to increase our ability to raise capital while still serving our mission, and no pre-existing legal structure we know of strikes the right balance," OpenAI said at the time. "Our solution is to create OpenAI LP as a hybrid of a for-profit and nonprofit—which we are calling a 'capped-profit' company."It was a deft move that, on its surface, appeared intended to satisfy employees and stakeholders concerned about developing the technology safely, and those who wanted to see the company more aggressively produce and release products.But as investment poured into the for-profit side, and the company's notoriety — <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-koenigsegg-regera-expensive-sports-car-video-openai-musk-2024-7">and Altman's notoriety</a> — increased, some got nervous.OpenAI's board briefly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-chatgpt-openai-ceo-career-net-worth-ycombinator-prepper-2023-1#chatgpt-was-made-public-so-openai-could-use-feedback-from-users-to-improve-the-bot-18">ousted Altman last year</a> over concerns that the company was too aggressively releasing products without prioritizing safety. Employees, and most notably Microsoft (with its multibillion-dollar investment), came to Altman's rescue. Altman returned to his position after just a few days.The cultural rift, however, had been exposed.Two of the company's top researchers — Jan Leike and Ilya Sutskever — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jan-leike-ilya-sutskever-resignations-superalignment-openai-superintelligence-safe-humanity-2024-5">both soon resigned</a>. The duo was in charge of the company's so-called superalignment team, which was tasked with ensuring the company developed artificial general intelligence safely — the central tenet of OpenAI's mission.OpenAI then dissolved the superalignment team in its entirety later that same month. After leaving, Leike said on X that the team had been "sailing against the wind.""OpenAI must become a safety-first AGI company," Leike wrote on X, adding that building generative AI is "an inherently dangerous endeavor" but that OpenAI was now more concerned with building "shiny products."It seems now that OpenAI has nearly completed its transformation into a Big Tech-stye "move fast and break things" behemoth.Fortune reported that Altman told employees in a meeting last week that the company plans to move away from nonprofit board control, which it has "outgrown," over the next year.Reuters reported on Saturday that OpenAI is now on the verge of securing another $6.5 billion in investment, which would value the company at $150 billion. But sources told Reuters that the investment comes with a catch: OpenAI must abandon its profit cap on investors.That would place OpenAI ideologically distant from its dreamy early days, when its technology was meant to be open source and for the benefit of everyone.OpenAI told Business Insider in a statement that it remains focused on "building AI that benefits everyone" while continuing to work with its nonprofit board. "The nonprofit is core to our mission and will continue to exist," OpenAI said.

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