Funding Will Revive Post COVID 19

At the recently organised ASSOCHAM Webinar on ‘Covid 19 – Impact on Residential Properties and the way forward’ Pradeep Aggarwal, Chairman, National Council on Real Estate and Housing, ASSOCHAM & Chairman, Signature Global India Pvt Ltd. emphasized that the Real Estate sector being the second largest employment generator in the country and contributing nearly 7 % to the GDP is ironically the biggest sufferer in the times of pandemic. He added that the government needs to infuse liquidity in the sector, cut down GST across all boards, remove stamp duty and grant project extensions to developers. The developers need to make unique strategies, collaborate to reduce risks involved and focus on building more technology friendly infrastructure to work in future. Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani, President Assocham suggested the need of stress funds and stimulus package as the issue of liquidity for Real Estate has been intensified now, where banks do not trust the economy and are not ready to lend any money and the NBFC’s in difficult conditions already. He also said that any further lockdown can lead us to starvation in the country. Anuj Puri, Chairman, ANAROCK Property Consultants Private Limited, cited an example of China where government is helping developers and if in India too government participates pushing demand the sector will make a difference. He emphasized that we should learn from the crisis. According to him, Reasonableness and collaboration and the emergence of new model of business along with new technology adaptation by developers in coming times will help real estate sail through.