Credai's new demand to RBI

A delegation of Confederation of Real Estate Developer's Associations of India (Credai) has put forward a demand of increasing the priority sector home loan cap of Rs 20 lakh to Rs 35-40 lakh in metros to the governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

In a closed door meeting with the governor in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon, the developers, ‘appraised’ RBI governor D Subbarao on the present situation and put forward several demands, which they think could give the growth momentum to the economy.

Subbarao, deputy governor Usha Thorat, Rajani Ajmera, Credai national president and managing director of Ajmera Group, a Mumbai-based real estate company, Ramani Shastri, past Credai president and managing director of Bangalore-based Sterling Developers, president of Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) Pravin H Doshi, who is the chairman of Mumbai-based Acme Group, Lalit Jain of Pune-based Kumar Builders, Dharmesh Jain, chairman of Nirmal Lifestyle and vice-president of MCHI, Sunil Mantri of Sunil Mantri Realty, and president-elect of MCHI, attended the meeting.

"We appraised the governor of the present situation and also tried to draw attention to certain needs. We requested the governor to increase the priority sector lending cap and also to treat the real estate industry on par with the other industry. Real estate industry is the second largest contributor to our GDP (gross domestic product), next to agriculture sector," said Ajmera.

Under the priority sector lending, banks and housing finance companies are allowed to disperse home loans up to Rs 20 lakh at an interest rate of 9.5 per cent. Government-owned State Bank of India lends at 9.5 per cent interest for home loans up to Rs 30 lakh.

"The governor was very sympathetic towards the industry. His response was very positive and encouraging," said Jain, adding that the meeting was more to give a directions for additional policy decisions.

This is definitely the need of the moment, as it would be a great relief for builders, and at the same time would prove to be a golden time for buyers. Hope the govt did listen to it!