President Desk

What are your thoughts on the Code of Conduct that is being brought up by CREDAI?

CREDAI NCR has already got the charter of Code of Conduct signed by its member developers and is being followed by them. This is being implemented with a view that it will bring in transparency and uniformity to the system. It will help the buyer to fairly evaluate the various proposals before he decides to buy the property. Besides, CREDAI NCR have started a consumer grievance redressal forum to resolve any sort of dispute which may arise between its member developers and their respective customers. I am happy to inform that this system got a very good response and we have been able to resolve more than 90% cases till date.

Affordable housing has become a buzzword in the industry. What steps is CREDAI NCR going to take to promote the same within its member community?

For affordable housing, costs have to be reduced. Major costs are land, taxes, easy availability of finance at reasonable rates and speedy implementation of the project. Since land cost are very high in A and B grade cities, one way to reduce this cost is to increase the FAR and density allowed for development of the project. However, for this meticulous planning is required by the local authorities for implementation of adequate infrastructure facilities. There are various taxes imposed by the central and state government. They vary from state to state and are not simple to implement. These contribute to a major chunk of the cost and are very cumbersome to implement. This need to be simplified and we are encouraging towards single taxation source. For easy availability of finance at reasonable rates financial institutions should work towards a system which will ensure that the finance provided is utilized for construction of affordable housing in reasonable time.

Environment ministry has been cracking down hard on infrastructure and real estate projects. How does CREDAI NCR plan to raise these grievances with the respective authorities?

Compliance of the appropriate environmental regulations is necessary in order to preserve our scarce natural resources and to provide a clean environment is essential. The developer community is all for having proper norms in order to safeguard the environment. What we are against is redundant approvals and duplicate red tape. We should have uniform norms across all the states. These should be simplified and be practical for implementation. There are certain norms which need implementation at the local body /local surroundings and certain norms which are specific for the project. The developer should be made responsible for implementation of the project specific norms only. Besides clearance/approval of environment before commencement of construction activity is very time consuming which adds to the cost and delays in project implementation. Government is providing incentive for the green building project which is a welcome step and we will promote this initiative.

Input prices have been showing a northward trend in this supply constraint market. What steps does CREDAI NCR wish to take to address these concerns of the developers?

CREDAI has limited role in addressing the cost of inputs. In fact our members compete against each other for resources. At CREDAI level, we try for better exchange of information between members, better dissemination of new construction technologies and construction practices. We also at times look at getting into preferred partnerships with some vendors.

What are the primary areas of work that your leadership of CREDAI NCR wishes to focus on over the next year?

To have better transparency with the customer To improve the credibility of the real estate sector with the customer and the government To conserve scarce resources by developing eco friendly projects To follow professional business practices To work with the government for providing single window clearance thereby reducing the clearance time To reduce the taxation burden on the real estate sector and increase the tax revenues by involving more tax payers To provide more jobs to the needy section of the society To provide affordable housing to the common man To work towards implementation of environmental norms To undertake CSR activities