TN opposes Real Estate Regulation Bill

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu government has some reservations over the Real Estate Regulation Bill, which is likely to be passed during the next parliament session, according to Housing and Urban Development Secretary K Phanindra Reddy.

Participating during a session on Imperatives for Success of Real estate Growth in South India during Estate South 2012 conference organised by Confederation of Indian Industry here on Friday, Reddy said the state government has few reservations on the bill but refused to specify it saying consultations are on within the government and the state will soon communicate its reservations to the Centre.

His comments come in the wake of joint secretary of ministry of housing and urban development Aruna Sundararajan announcing during the inaugural session of the conference that the Real Estate Regulatory Bill is likely to be presented in the next session of Parliament. She said the Bill has completed taking on board the views of the stakeholders and was expected to come before the Union Cabinet shortly.

She said that the bill would allay most of the fears of the real estate sector as it has taken into consideration most of the industry proposals. “One of the primary objectives of the Bill was to address the information asymmetry,” she added.

Sundararajan said the bill basically mandates certain public disclosure norms and would establish a level playing field besides facilitate faster growth of the industry and bring the bulk of the industry into an orderly regulated professional framework.

However, the real estate sector also has certain reservations over the bill. Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) president Chennai and managing director of Akshaya T Chitty Babu and vice-president of CREDAI C Shekar Reddy said the jurisdiction of the bill be expanded to address how to increase housing stock besides other pressing issues like long delay in approval, rising cost of material and labour etc.