UP government continues efforts to push for the revival of real estate sector

The UP government has decided to come up with a host of measures to revive the realty sector, as the number of housing units stuck due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown keeps on increasing.

The state government is looking to expedite construction activities while waiving penalty for developers in case of a Corona infected person making way to the construction site. This could prove to be helpful in making things easier for the developers left bruised following the lockdown.

Principal sector, housing and urban planning, Deepak Kumar told TOI that the prime motive is to start construction activity while taking developers into confidence.

“We have allowed construction activity with the help of on-site workers. The developer would not be penalised in case any on-site person is found to be infected with Coronavirus,” said Deepak Kumar.

“At the same time, the state government would not allow transportation of workers to the site as that could potentially escalate the possibility of an infected person making way to the construction site,” he added.

According to Kumar, the work on about 250 sites, including on government owned projects, has already started. He also said that the government was considering extending the one time settlement scheme for buyers by three to six months.

Scheduled to end by June 5, the scheme envisages waiving additional surcharge on delayed payment of instalments by buyers. As per the housing department officials, the scheme needs to be extended as many people are faltering on the payment of instalments.

On the other hand, the real estate developers asserted that the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to leave many units of real estate stuck for more than a year.

Talking about the present situation, the Chairman of UP chapter of CREDAI, SK Garg said that most of the housing units require a booster dose as on-site labourers migrated and people in the industry lost their jobs.

Rera expert, Venkat Rao said that the situation is unlikely to improve soon. “The already delayed projects are expected to be delayed further while the ones started recently may also see deferment by at least a year,” he said.