Govt is committed to fulfill housing need of every citizen: Hardeep Singh Puri
Addressing a function in National Capital, Puri said, based on demand assessment at the state level, there is a need to construct about 12 million houses under Economically Weaker Section or Low Income Group segment of society in order to achieve the goal of Housing for All.
The Minister said, the government has made several efforts to create enabling environment and eco-system to promote affordable housing.
He said, the Centre has granted infrastructure status to affordable housing which will enable the projects to avail the associated benefits such as lower borrowing rates, tax concessions and increased flow of foreign and private capital.
Puri informed that additional measures such as Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), the Benami transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, higher tax breaks on home loans and GST etc has also been introduced to encourage construction activities.
“These will be effective in spurring the housing and construction activities, providing huge relief to real estate developers, Also, these would attract private and foreign investments in the housing sector, having a positive multiplier effect on GDP and labour market. We are aware that availability of encumbrance free land within existing municipal areas of urban housing schemes is not an easy task.”