Special push on the housing front can aid economy too

Cabinet approves special window for funding of stalled affordable and middle-income housing projects

GN Bureau | November 7, 2019


#nirmala sitharaman   #union cabinet   #economy   #real estate   #Housing   #home buyers  
A representative image: Photo: Governance Now
A representative image: Photo: Governance Now

The real estate sector is arguably the most representative of the slowdown in the economy. The government has moved to offer it a helping hand with a Rs 10,000 crore package, which has the potential of lifting the sagging fortunes of a large number of allied industries.

The union cabinet on Wednesday approved the establishment of a ‘Special Window’ fund to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stalled housing projects that are in the ‘affordable and middle-income housing’ sector.

For the purposes of the fund, the government shall act as the sponsor and the total commitment to be infused by it would be up to INR 10,000 crore, an official note said. The fund will be set up as a Category-11 Alternate Investment Fund (AIF) debt fund registered with SEBI and would be professionally run. For the first AIF under the Special Window, it is proposed that SBICAP Ventures Limited shall be engaged to be the Investment Manager.

This fund would in turn provide relief to developers that require funding to complete a set of unfinished projects and consequently ensure delivery of homes to the home buyers.
 
Since the real estate industry is intrinsically linked with several other industries, growth in this sector will have a positive effect in releasing stress in other major sectors of the Indian economy as well.
 
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on September 14 announced that a special window for affordable and middle-income housing will be created. This special window will provide last mile funding for housing projects which are stressed.
 
Subsequently, Inter-ministerial consultations and several stakeholder consultations were held with the housing industry including housing finance companies, banks, NBFCs, investors, and real estate developers. Problems being faced by home buyers, developers, lenders, and investors were ascertained that could be addressed through the special window.

Comments

 

Other News

Climate actions being implemented to deal with impact of heat waves

India’s climate actions cut across various sectors and are being implemented through various programs and schemes of different union ministries, departments and state/ union territory governments.  The government of India through concerned ministries and departments organises workshops, exhibiti

Banks must hear borrowers before declaring their accounts as frauds: SC

In a judgment with far-reaching implications, the Supreme Court has held that the civil consequences of an account being declared as fraud under the Reserve Bank of India (Frauds Classification and Reporting by Commercial Banks and Select FIs) Directions, 2016 or its Master Directions on Fraud amount to ci

India’s forest cover increases by 5,516 sq km in four years

The Dehradun-based Forest Survey of India (FSI), an organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, carries out the assessment of forest cover biennially since 1987 and the findings are published in the India State of Forest Report (ISFR). As per the latest ISFR 2021, there is a

Steps taken to meet higher power demand of April-May

While the average growth of energy requirement in the country for 2023-24 viz-a-viz 2022-23 has been estimated as 4.9%, the months of April and May have been projected as high demand period. During the current year, the peak demand is expected to be around 229 GW during the summer period. The government ha

Millets to make comeback in army ration after half a century

As the UN has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets, the Indian Army has steered introduction of millets flour in the rations of soldiers. This landmark decision will ensure troops are supplied with native and traditional grains after over half a century, when these were discontinued in favour

Central Bank Digital Currency has game-changing potential

When discussing digital currency, you might think of one or two well-known varieties. There is the digital representation of currency that you access with mobile and online banking services. This currency is the liability of a commercial bank. There is also cryptocurrency, a digital medium of exchange issu

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook    Twitter    Google Plus    Linkedin    Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter