Realty News Roundup: Odisha Launches Urban Housing Mission; CREDAI Calls For Nation-Wide Strike

Realty News Roundup is PropGuide's selection of top stories from the real estate sector

Top News

The Odisha government has launched Odisha Urban Housing Mission, Abaas, to build homes for economically weaker sections (EWS) and low-income groups. The state government will give land free of cost for these low-cost homes in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Developers, under this mission, can be exempted from paying road/drain and periphery development charges and also conversion charges for agricultural land. Moreover, 10 per cent homes in projects above 2,000 sq mt, will be reserved. Read more

The National Housing Bank (NHB) has granted approval to six new housing finance companies (HFC). The decision has come mainly to cater to the affordable housing finance segment. Six companies that have been given approval include Supreme Housing Finance, Nivara Home Finance, Khush Housing Finance Private, Bajaj Housing Finance Capri, Global Housing Finance Pvt Ltd and Hinduja Housing Finance Ltd. There are a total of 72 HFCs registered with the NHB. Read more

The Allahabad High Court has ordered to demolish a number of real estate projects in Patwari village as the land belonged to a cemetery. The court has given two months' time for the developers involved, which include Supertech, Amrapali and Jagat Taran. Read more

Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) has called for a nation-wide strike by its members on October 13, to protest against the government's wrong policies and corruption. The decision has come in the aftermath of the recent suicide by a Thane-based builder who ended his life due to harassment from various government departments asking for bribe. Read more.

Off the front page

In a latest survey, it has been observed that 80-100 million sq ft of commercial space worth $15-20 billion is going to be eligible for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in the next three years. Another report says that the third quarter of 2015 has seen absorption of more than 9 million sq ft of commercial space across top seven real estate markets in the country.

Business Watch: Tata Realty & Infrastructure (TRIL) has returned Rs 1,250 crore to investors in its first real estate fund of Rs 3200 crore, which was raised in 2008. In another development, a joint venture of Radius Developers and Sumer Group to develop 65-storey residential towers in South Mumbai has got Rs 450 crore of debt financing in the form of non-convertible debentures (NCD) from Altico Capital India Pvt Ltd.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decided to auction small land parcels in densely-populated areas of the city. According to this report, the data will be put online for public scrutiny by the year-end.

Opinion

An article published in The Hindu says that more action needs to be taken after the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy announcement to ensure the banks pass on benefits to its customers. Read  here