Mumbai real estate industry replicates PM Modi’s “Housing For All” vision

Mumbai witnessed the highest number of launches at over 19,400 new residential units till September 2017.

Out of the total launches in Mumbai, affordable housing sector had a share of close to 10000 units, registering a rise of 300 percent over same time last year; all this in accordance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Housing for All by 2022" initiative, which is proving to be a booster dose for real estate industry players. To add to this, the interest subvention scheme in home loans taken for buying affordable homes which was announced in this budget, opened doors for many middle-class aspirant home - buyers. In the first nine months of 2017, the affordable housing sector has witnessed a surge of over 27 percent in new units launched in the top eight cities in India. This year, two major developments impacted real-estate sector - RERA and GST. The preparedness of the industry was palpable with a number of RERA Registrations taking place in Mumbai and MMR, thus leading the industry towards transparency and organisation. "The market is looking up with the positive festive season when developers are receiving a good number of enquiries. There's festive mood in the market, thus demand is picking up starting Diwali season. If things go the way sales are picking up, we may even reach our peak in another six months. The focus being on affordable housing, we aim to work towards providing a home for every Mumbaikar besides making Mumbai a world-class city with our Clean and Green City initiative," said president CREDAI - MCHI, Mayur Shah. During January-September 2017, the supply of affordable homes increased to 26,081 from 20,485 houses in the corresponding period last year. Among these new launches, almost 40 percent of affordable housing projects were launched in Mumbai, followed by Kolkata and Pune. The real estate sector is one of the most globally recognised sectors. In India, real estate is the second largest employer after agriculture and is slated to grow by 30 percent over the next decade. The Indian real estate market is expected to touch USD 180 billion by 2020. The housing sector alone contributes approx. Eight percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the period FY 2008-2020, the market size of this sector is expected to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.2 percent. Retail, hospitality and commercial real estate are also growing significantly, providing the much-needed infrastructure for India's growing needs. The Government's decision to include the middle-income group category in the flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), or housing-for-all scheme, would change the market dynamics. For the first time any Government has recognised middle class as potential customers, thus the demand from MIG is going to be much more than EWS and LIG. Under CLSS, NHB has already disbursed over 1000 Cr till date. Under PMAY, GOI has so far sanctioned projects worth over 25000 crore which works out to over a million homes. Looking at the figures, real-estate industry is a huge opportunity for India and developers across are putting their might to make this "Miracle" happen.