Housing Demand and Supply are being matched
Sachin Ahir, Minister of State for Housing, Government of Maharashtra, shares with Vijay Pandya details of the policies introduced to promote housing and how they will benefit flat buyers across segments.
What is the significance of the housing sector in Maharashtra, especially urban areas like the Mumbai Metropolitan Region? What are the specific initiatives taken by the state government to facilitate the process? Will cluster development help to rejuvenate Mumbai city in particular?
We framed a housing policy in 2007 where we focused on making it applicable in the state of Maharashtra. Within five years we had planned for the creation of five lakh affordable housing. Now today we have achieved around three and half to four lakh through redevelopment of the slums, redevelopment of the MHADA colonies and more to come in few years.
The thing which we wanted to always ensure is housing but across all segments. Just making housing stock is not important. How to create affordable housing, which people can really afford to buy, is the issue and that's why this process was initiated.
First we formed a committee with three secretaries mentioning what has to be the definition of affordable housing and we came up to a conclusion that definition of affordable housing is that whatever is being earned is not that amount. Instead, whatever is being saved after earning and spending is what needs to be provided, so that the people should get affordable housing in that particular 'savings' money. In that context, we have changed a lot of policies and some of these are under implementation. The results will be seen in the coming few years.
Second, if you see we have changed the cluster policy under sec 33 (9). We brought a policy 33(5) where first we used to take only premium and sell the FSI to the private societies of MHADA layout. Now we are saying we don't want to take premium; we want housing stock and the same housing stock can be used for the affordable housing.
Third, we have increased FSI in the suburbs area.
Fourth, we are promoting townships we are giving more incentives like far more FSI. So the effort conceptually is to create more housing so that if the supply is more demand is in match this issue can be sorted out in coming few years.
What are some of the ongoing steps that you feel could give the process a boost?
What we are also doing is that we are not only concentrating towards Mumbai. We have to also see about the satellite townships, which are there in the state of Maharashtra. We are now coming up with a new concept of new satellite cities as we have already done early like New Mumbai, Thane, Mira-Bhayander and Vasai-Virar.
We are going ahead with Panvel, which is being developed as part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. CIDCO is doing a good job. Now at Uran we are coming up with a new city.
The same thing is being done in rural areas. If you have Chandrapur, we have made an additional Chandrapur.. We are buying lands on behalf of MHADA also, whereby a housing land bank can be created. Now we are constantly taking land in places like Solapur, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Nagpur where we can give a boost to the affordable housing.
What has been the response to these initiatives so far?
People are getting a house they can really afford. That is why we are getting good response. Where we have asked applications for 5000-6000 houses, we have been getting multiple applications in lakhs, which reflects the demand.
We are not only concentrating on the existing city areas; we are trying to create new city areas also and that's how the satellite township concept is used.
The response is very good where we come up with 4000 to 5000 housing stock, we announce the lottery and we have one lakh applications coming up so that is an indicator of the volume or quantum of response that we are getting.
What are the key opportunity areas in the housing sector in Maharashtra?
The emphasis on creating new housing stock is not only for MHADA, it will be for public as well as private sector also. We are here not saying that only government has to do something or only government will do housing stock creation, we are also encouraging private people also to come up with their projects.
Supply and demand is being matched and for this all segments have to be encouraged, it has to be public and private sector both developing new housing stock.
What are some of the key challenges and hurdles faced in providing housing for all? How are you resolving them?
In some areas, yes there are hurdles because people do not proactively come up to get things done. Certain policies also we are trying to rectify, especially in 33(5) the minimum area, which was supposed to get 484 now was been reduced by 300 that is also we are overlooking it and we are considering it favorably. So it is like when these things come up there may be a problem, which needs to be resolved. Projects like the Bandra, Worli Sea Link, Metro and Mono rail have made a big difference. Metro even will be starting in Pune and Nagpur also and lot more things are going to come. It is going to be a dual development simultaneously for housing and infrastructure.
How would you describe your approach towards overall policy formation for promoting housing stock creation?
We are also taking other initiatives like in MIDC area we also allot 30% for real estate and they are coming up with the walk to work culture. 60% industries and of the remaining 40%, 30% will be housing stock and remaining 10% will be the other amenities. So that is the new industrial policy created so that they can get this kind of benefit also.
How do you take steps to enhance awareness and make efforts towards bringing all stakeholders together to discuss key issues on common platforms?
We are planning our interaction seminars with the different NGOs working in this field and media and also intellectuals who are working with the industry and also the private parties, to make them more aware about the changes that have been made for the benefit of home buyers.
What is your overall vision for the housing sector in Maharashtra?
To match the supply with demand, that is the overall vision for the housing sector. The demand has not been only seen in one particular category. It has to be LIG low income group, MIG middle income group and HIG high income group also We need to give them space for all these 3 sectors so that's the basically the vision for which we are targeting. We have totally focused on that and planned accordingly.
The main target for us in the coming future is to create our own land bank. For the first time in the history of MHADA we are purchasing land now. We are not just developing on existing land, we are purchasing it. That is how it is going to make a big difference going forward.
Do you feel having a housing regulator will be an important step in enhancing transparency and trust within the housing sector in Maharashtra?
We have come up with the regulatory authority to protect home buyers. When we talk about people who are buying houses, they sometimes face problems with certain arrogant builders who cheat people
There is a law under MOFA - Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act - but the time frame of the law is so high that it takes so much time to address the problem. There was no such amendment or any such thing where changes could have really worked out.
We felt that a new law can be put in place so that's how Maharashtra government took this step. Maharashtra is the first state to come up with this regulatory act, which was been passed and known as Maharashtra Housing Act 2012 with the support of all party MLA.
This act has been bought into place after the 1963 Act of MOFA, which was in place as an act for a long time. Since we needed something more effective, we bought this new act.
There are two authorities one is regulatory authority and other is appellate authority. The regulatory authority will be consisting of secretary level-principal secretary level, may be present or retired. The appellate authority will be represented by present high court judge or retired high court judge. This appellate authority we are given them civil judiciary powers of civil court.
How will the process get expedited?
What we have done is that we have put the powers in the act only that the regulatory authority has to decide all the matters coming to him within 30 days. Thus, the decision is speedy.
Also, because we have given civil court status to the appellate authority now anyone, any builder or consumer does not have to go to the consumer court then the civil court. They can now directly come to the appellate authority having the status of civil court.
Then, if there is any problem and if they are not satisfied either of the parties can go to high court so the waste time, which was there for so many years now that will get cut off.
by Vijay Pandya for DNA
