5 Terms That Will Define Indian Realty In Times To Come

With changes at various levels, real estate in India is going to change for good, mostly owning to the policy changes initiated by the new government at the Centre. As the focus shifts from rural to urban housing, new terms are going to redefine property markets of India. 

PropGuide lists five such terms:

Real Estate Act

The government is still in process of implementing the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016. A law that is expected to purse the sector by bringing in transparency and fixing accountability, the Act is going to redefine real estate as we know it today, more than anything else. An effective implementation will not only revive the sector — suffering from a slowdown in the past couple of years — but also improve its brand image. This legislation, if implemented as planned, has the capacity to change things in the sector for good and for the better.

Also read: Is India Ready To Implement The Real Estate Law?  

Demonetisation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sudden declaration on November 8 that the existing currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would turn into “worthless pieces of paper” hours after the announcement took the entire nation by surprise or shock, more likely. The bloodbath real estate stocks witnessed the next day only supported the expert opinion that the real estate sector is going to be the worst-hit casualty. Without getting into the debate on how right or wrong the contradictory expert opinions would have been, it is safe to say the word demonetisation is here to stay as a definitive word in real estate for a long time to come. 

Also read: Govt Bans Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 Notes; Move Will Cure Realty Of Many Ailments In Long Term

Affordable housing 

PM Modi has an ambitious plan. He wants to provide housing to every citizen by 2022. And, in doing so, the word affordability is going to be the key. Apart from that, with more and more people expected to shift from rural to urban areas, the demand for affordable housing is going to increase by leaps and bounds. Subsequent reports by PropTiger DataLabs show this is the segment which has been contributing the highest to new project launches and homes sales across major property markets of the country. This trend is likely to continue in future, too.

Also read: How Lower Stamp Duty Will Boost Affordable Housing

Smart Cities

India is on its way to build smart cities — growth centres of the future which would give a new meaning to urban living. From offering a Wi-Fi connectivity to offering all citizen services online, future cities in India — the Centre plans to develop 100 such cities by 2020 — would provide smart solutions to make better urban living.

Also read: 10 Challenges Before India's Smart Cities Mission

Urban infrastructure

Data show that from 31 per cent at present, 40 per cent of India's population will live in urban areas by 2030. To facilitate this shift, the government has large-scale infrastructure plans. Some of which are already in the process of implementation, contours for others are being drawn. Central government programmes such as the Housing for All by 2022, the Smart Cities Mission, and the Swachh Bharat Mission, are all part of the process to create urban centres comparable to world-class cities. In light of this, the word urban infrastructure will remain a recurring term in the glossary of Indian real estate.

Also read: Good Infrastructure Key To Making Our Cities Smart