INFRA

Over the last few years, there have been continuous incidents of collapsing old constructions in India. As per data shared by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), more than 14,000 people have died from 2010 to 2015 due to dilapidated building collapses. At an average, 2,700 people lose their lives in different structural breakdowns every year.
 
Across all the major cities in India, Mumbai has been witnessing the maximum cases of structural collapses. Between 2010 to 2015, there have been approximately 13,470 incidents of structural collapse in the country, and Mumbai alone accounted for 1,366 of these. This amounts to over 10% of the total incidents. The collapse of buildings, specifically old constructions, has been continuously increasing in recent years.

As the three- month window given to states for notifying RERA (Real Estate Regulation & Development Act), especially in view of ongoing under-construction projects, expires in July, the stage is set for the transformation of the real estate and housing as a matured, professional, organised and transparent sector, much to the advantage of all the stakeholders.

 In a landmark move, the central government, in the form of RERA, gave the real estate sector its first regulator w.e.f from May 1, 2016. The Union Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, however, gave time to states till May 1, 2017, to formulate & notify rules for the functioning of the regulator.

The Indian real estate market in the country is going through some exciting times - not only have sales started picking up, but even the rental market is growing at a healthy rate. A survey in 2009 pointed out that almost 35% of urban families were living in rental homes - another survey in 2011 indicated that a massive 24.7 million families lived on rent. Since then, factoring in population growth, the development of new workplace hubs and the hugely increased rate of job creation and the formation of new residential precincts in and around our cities, the current demand for rental homes can well be imagined.

In Indian real estate today, the untrained eye may see a dichotomy in the massive investments pouring into the Indian residential sector and the actual on-ground demand for housing. A similar question mark was, in the past, also attached to the fact that developers kept churning out projects despite the visibly reduced uptake over the last couple of years. The fact is, there are always at least two storylines unfolding - the first and most obvious is the short-term story.

In its seven decades of journey since independence, the real estate and housing sector, has come a long way from early years of restrictive policies, deficient planning and highly inadequate resources, to reach a progressive, planned, organised and reformative stage, facilitating urban transformation and speedy economic growth.

 The present government's vision is to ensure long term inclusive development through good governance and transformative reforms to boost real estate, housing and infrastructure - the vital sectors that hold key to economic development. It is a far cry from early years after independence (1947 – 64), when not much attention was paid towards housing/urban infrastructure due to lack of resources and staff capacity to design and deliver. But, it was during this period that the government introduced state housing boards, mandated to construct houses for public and laid the ground for planned cities and subsequently Chandigarh &Gandhinagar came into existence in 1952 and 1960 respectively.