Govt to soon allow 100 pct FDI in rental housing, says Hardeep Puri

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said that the government will soon allow 100 per cent FDI in the rental housing segment. Speaking at a webinar, the minister also announced that the real estate sector will have a `Permanent Working Group` to attend any issues or matters pertaining to the sector for faster decision making.

"Responding to a demand raised by NAREDCO about permitting a 100 per cent FDI in affordable rental housing sector, Hardeep Singh Puri announced that the Government will soon allow it," a National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) statement said.

The minister also launched "CREDAI Awaas App" and NAREDCO`s online portal "HousingforAll.com".

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In a bid to resurrect from a continuous decline in the housing sales and revive the demand amid the Covid pandemic, NAREDCO announced that developers will soon offer over 2.70 lakh ready-to-move-in houses for online sales to the home buyers in a housing sale drive.

In this festival, developers from all over India will list their housing properties for sale on the exclusively-created "NAREDCO Housing For All", it said.

Niranjan Hiranandani, National President of NAREDCO said: "The real estate sector needs an immediate demand shock and unlocking the potential of unsold housing inventory is the immediate remedy. This e-commerce platform is curated supporting the `Digital India` initiative which will not only boost the sales process but also instil confidence among the respective stakeholders."

Further, the CREDAI Awaas App, a platform to discover residential projects online would offer projects from 220 cities across the country. The app aims to facilitate transparent home buying in India of RERA approved projects by CREDAI developers, said a CREDAI statement.

Jaxay Shah, Chairman, CREDAI National, said: "Proptech is the future of Real Estate and initiatives like the CREDAI Awaas App will be instrumental in bridging the hiatus between the customer and developer in the coming days. The significant feature of the app is that the dream of buying a home remains a click away and one can simultaneously connect with developers across India."

The Housing Ministry had directed CREDAI & NAREDCO at the 3rd RERA Conclave, held at Lucknow in 2019, to launch online project discovery platforms which would be RERA regulated and would help the sector be more proficient when it comes to home buying.

"The CREDAI Awaas app will aid developers in selling their finished projects faster and improve home buyers` sentiment at large," the industry body said.