Real estate sector gets Finance Minister’s word

New Delhi: In the last sectoral meeting with the real estate sector representatives and homebuyers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Sunday, said that she would soon address issues affecting the sector and other stakeholders. She also assured them that measures on liquidity issues, demand slowdown and stalled projects would be taken to strengthen the industry in the near future.

However, confirming the development, a source close to development told Financial Chronicle, "The finance minister has acknowledged various concerns raised by real estate industry bodies and she assured them to look into the problems faced by the industry soon, especially liquidity crunch, slowdown of demand and stalled projects, among others."

The government is believed to have decided on a high-level meeting to bring the ailing sector on track. "There would be a separate high-level meeting, under the chairmanship of the cabinet secretary, in next few weeks to discuss setting up of a stress fund to deal with stalled projects and bail out lakhs of homebuyers," the source said.

It is learnt that Sitharaman met two apex industry bodies of realtors, Credai and Naredco, and then she held the second meeting with homebuyers associations.

In the meeting, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, and top officials from the departments of economic affairs, revenue, housing, CBDT and corporate affairs and realty regulator RERA were also present.

The representatives of Credai and Naredco are learnt to have raised concerns over the liquidity crunch and poor sales demand of housing projects due to the government's strict policies.

"The also demanded that banks and NBFCs should be encouraged to fund projects so that the sector will run smoothly or else the situation could worsen during the coming festive season when generally demand is higher," the source said.