FCC

The RICS Conference on Real Estate

2023-08-28

Organised by RICS in Delhi on August 3, 2023, The Indian Real Estate: Housing Conference focused on critical issues related to the sector, including demand and supply, policy interventions and providing finance at reasonable rates to bring prices to equitable levels.

The conference began with Ashwani Awasthi, Managing Director - South Asia, RICS, setting the agenda for the day.

India @100: Housing Sector's Role in Shaping the Future
In this session, Gulam Zia, MRICS, Senior Executive Director Research, Advisory, Infrastructure and Valuation, Knight Frank, discussed affordable housing, land prices and catering to the demand of increasingly young home users. Participants included Sanjay Dutt, FRICS, MD & CEO, Tata Realty & Infrastructure Ltd and RICS Conference Chair – South Asia and Vipul Roongta, FRICS, Managing Director and CEO, HDFC Capital.

Key takeaways:

The need to balance the housing needs of workers and professionals with increasing cost of land. An option is the hub-and-spoke model, where affordable housing would be constructed further away, where land is relatively cheaper, and connected to the hubs with good quality infrastructure.

Every home buyer expects the price to appreciate. When interest rates have gone up to 9 per cent and land prices are at an all-time high, how can the price of affordable housing hold?

Affordable housing of sub Rs 75 lakh per unit in most parts of the country and sub Rs 1.5 crore in Mumbai is possible.

Real-estate development is a state subject with regional variations. Working in one region or many is a choice, not something to be tackled through policy.

Many new formats, such as rental and professional housing, have emerged and more will develop.

As India moves towards a more global interest rate, the gap between residential yields and mortgage rates (about a third currently) will close.

Demand for housing will grow as construction and manufacturing pick up pace. The problem is supply. The country must make homes for workers. For example, Tata Housing recently made 1.5 million sq ft of housing for women in just six months, “a small Jamshedpur, of sorts” – an initiative worth replicating.