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Slum Development / Housing

Tax exemption to builders may boost EWS housing

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The Hindu       23.03.2016  

Tax exemption to builders may boost EWS housing

The DDA, which has about 51 per cent of the city’s slums under it, is likely to benefit the most

Experts say that the tax relaxation will help conceptualise more PPP projects of in-situ slum redevelopment.File Photo
Experts say that the tax relaxation will help conceptualise more PPP projects of in-situ slum redevelopment.File Photo

The Centre’s proposal of giving 100 per cent tax exemption on profits to builders for projects with flats of up to 30 square metres in metropolitan cities will accelerate housing for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the Capital, believe experts.

According to various stakeholders, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which has about 51 per cent of the city’s slums under it, is likely to benefit the most. “The tax relaxation is going to attract more private players to engage with us under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. This will help conceptualise more PPP projects of in-situ slum redevelopment like the one in Kathputli Colony,” said a DDA official. Delhi has 675 slums, which are home to over 1.5 million people.

Spread over 5.22 hectares in Delhi’s Anand Parbat area, popularly known as Kathputli Colony, private company Raheja Builders had developed 2,800 dwelling units at the existing slums and handed it over to the DDA. In turn, the developer was given the remaining free space to be used for commercial and residential purposes.

The Delhi government, on the other hand, maintained that the scheme wouldn’t be of much help to their projects as they are based on direct investments. Explaining how the proposal cannot be implemented on Delhi government projects, V.K. Jain, CEO of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), said: “Our plan is to use land as a resource where parcels of it will be sold and the money will be pumped into building houses for slum dwellers. The second type is where we will use 40 per cent of a land for generating money, while the remaining 60 per cent will be used for houses. The housing work will be given to a contractor and there shall be no dealing with any private builder.”

Following the tax exemption, developers have expressed interest in participating in such PPP projects, but maintained that the scope would be limited. “If the DDA or the Delhi government ropes in builders, it would be a nice opportunity for us. It would help set a reverse trend at a time when builders are moving out of Delhi to satellite cities. But we must keep in mind that Delhi is different from the Mumbai model, on which the proposal is largely based. While Mumbai focussed on high-rises, that is not the case in Delhi,” said Manoj Gaur, president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), NCR.

 

Boost for affordable housing

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The Hindu        30.05.2015

Boost for affordable housing

National Housing Bank’s special urban housing refinance scheme extends a helping hand to low-income urban households, writes K.A. Martin

The National Housing Bank (NHB) has come out with a special housing refinance scheme for low-income households in urban areas leveraging a $100-million loan from the International Development Agency (IDA).

An NHB document on the new scheme said that refinance would be provided to primary lending institutions on the basis of their loans to low-income urban households for building, purchasing, or renovation of houses. These loans must be secured through collateral property or in another way.

Urban households with an annual income not exceeding Rs.2 lakh are eligible for benefits under the new scheme. The loan amount should not exceed Rs.5 lakh. It is also a must that the beneficiaries have income from the informal sector. The loans should have been disbursed either on or after February 25, 2013. The loan-to-value ratio must not exceed 80 per cent.

The NHB has also said that the benefits under the new scheme should be extended only to projects that conform to the prescribed social and environmental due diligence requirements.

Introducing the new scheme, the NHB document said that the housing finance market in the country had developed at a robust rate over the last 25 years. There are numerous large, small, and medium-sized housing finance companies spread across the country. Besides, commercial banks, regional rural banks, and urban cooperative banks too provide loans for housing purpose, making the market vibrant.

However, the NHB document noted that most of the growth in the housing finance sector took place in the upper- and middle-income groups. Low-income groups still have little access to housing finance from the formal sector.

The situation has led to shortage of houses in the low-income group. A study by a technical committee appointed by the government on housing requirements in the country said that there was a shortage of 17.84 million houses in the country (2012) in the urban areas among the low-income or economically weaker groups.

Taking the situation into consideration, the government is working to achieve housing for all by 2022.

The NHB states that the benefits under the new scheme should be extended only to projects that conform to the prescribed social and environmental due diligence requirements

 

MUDA plans to build 2,000 flats

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The Hindu        29.01.2015  

MUDA plans to build 2,000 flats

The Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) plans to build 2,000 flats in Mysuru for citizens who do not own a house or site.

A proposal has been submitted to the State government and the concept has secured in-principle approval. It will come up before the Cabinet for official administrative clearance in a couple of weeks.

MUDA chairman K.R. Mohan Kumar told The Hindu that the apartment units of 1 & 2 BHK are being contemplated on the existing vacant lands held by the authority in old residential areas.

“Once approved, these units will come up in nine layouts, including Srirampura, Vijayanagar 1st, 2nd and 3rd stages, and Lalitadripura,” he said.

The plan is to allot units only to those who have lived in Mysuru for at least 10 years and do not own sites or houses, said Mr. Kumar.

The proposed project also signals MUDA’s preference for vertical growth to arrest the unbridled horizontal sprawl of the city.

“The city cannot keep expanding horizontally forever and vertical growth option has to be explored,” said Mr. Kumar.

The old Mysuru comprising the heritage zones and the existing localities can be retained as they are. But the floor area ratio (FAR) in the new residential layouts coming up along the Outer Ring Road can be increased to facilitate vertical growth, said Mr. Kumar.

(FAR refers to the ratio of the built area to the plot area and is reckoned to be very low in Mysuru at 1.25 to 1.5)

In the newly approved layout at Balahalli, MUDA plans to carve out 6,155 sites in the 484.24 acre swathe of land, apart from leaving aside plots for civic amenities.

Though distributing over 6,000 sites may seem impressive, it pales into insignificance compared to the nearly 1.5 lakh aspirants awaiting a MUDA site.

Though the MUDA nurtured similar plans of constructing luxury apartments a few years ago, the concept did not take off.

However, this time the MUDA has submitted project details pertaining to 2,000 flats to the government for final approval.

The city cannot keep expanding horizontally forever and vertical growth option has to be explored.

K.R. Mohan Kumar,

MUDA chairman

 


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