TV9 Network in association with Orient Bell launches ‘Building a New India’

New Delhi: India is at the cusp of a remarkable economic recovery, having been able to administer 100 crore vaccine doses, bringing business back to usual. The economic revival has augured well for all business verticals, especially the realty sector that is witnessing green shoots with buoyancy being observed across categories.

Often described as the engine of the economy, the real estate sector ranks third among the 14 major sectors in terms of direct, indirect, and induced effects. The growth of this sector is being sustained by the Union government offering a new lease to life with progressive infrastructure spends that is becoming a major development driver.

As a media house dedicated to the growth of the economy, TV9 Network in association with Orient Bell has launched ‘Building a New India’, a programme on how the realty sector’s aspirations are aligned with the vision for New India. The network is set to host a series of conversations across India, bringing together veterans on a panel all of whom are realty experts and renowned policymakers. The panels will largely focus on topics catering to housing, retail, hospitality, and commercial.

Speaking on the launch, Raktim Das, Chief Growth Officer, TV9 Network said ‘’With things getting back to normal, the realty sector is gradually progressing with a growth cycle that will see better infra-affordability in the country. Our platform ‘Building a New India’ perfectly captures the stance of the Indian economy with key opinion leaders putting forward an expert point of view that will define the realty industry in the next few years’’

Mr. Madhur Daga, MD, Orient Bell Tiles said, “New India is becoming a Smart India through adoption of technology in the real estate sector and Orient Bell Tiles is aligned with the vision of a New and Smart India’’

The culmination event of the series was hosted at Hotel Oberoi, Delhi on 11th December 2021 which had eminent speakers such as Balvinder Kumar, Member, UPRERA; Manoj Gaur, CMD, Gaursons; Nayan Raheja, Director, Raheja Developers; Kavi Jain, Architect, Nirman and Ashish Agarwal, Director, Aditya Builders.

The discussion on the topic of Housing for New India – Is Policy, Builder and Homeowner on the same page, revolved around tech transformation, policy push and capital infusion bringing a thorough perspective around investment in realty.

Balvinder Kumar, Member, UPRERA at the panel said, “It was around 2008 when a real estate crisis emerged and reached its peak by 2014. At a time like this when a lot of buyers and builders were facing several concerns and disputes, the legislative was amended to include the RERA. In Uttar Pradesh, the process initiated around 3 years back and ever since then we have filed 39,600 cases out which most have also been solved. RERA has played a major role in winning back the audience’s trust and with the market showing an increasing development, builders too have begun completing their projects as per an organized framework. Keeping these developments in mind we truly believe that for the next two years the situation will be under control and projects that were delayed or stalled will also be completed.”

Supporting Balvinder in his opinion Manoj Gaur, CMD, Gaursons added, “Most of the complaints that we hear of even today are much before the 2016 RERA act came into regulation. These were due to reasons related to financial approvals, land acquisition, movements unanticipated by developers coupled with the entry of unexperienced people in this field. It was only after the implementation of RERA that the act served as an entry barrier and smoothened the financial closure and timely approval of documentation. RERA has helped build trust from buyers and developers alike because anyone who sees a RERA number will know that there is judicial body involved to ensure timely and secure financial transactions”

Sharing a contrary opinion and highlighting how policy changes impact pricing in real estate, Ashish Agarwal, Director, Aditya Builders said, “The implementation of RERA has led to fewer number of projects because of the various complex processes involved in launching a project. Builders tend to take backseat just seeing the number of approvals required and this may ultimately impact buyers in the longer run. The introduction of any regulatory framework or policy definitely leads to an increase in cost. However, just like developers manage outsourcing tasks for authorities, the approvals process can also be designated to an outside agency that will help speed up the process. All this while RERA was solving problems related to buyers and they must now focus on solving the problems related to the developers”

Talking about the additional impacts of a policy change, Nayan Raheja, Director, Raheja Developers said, “I believe more than the cost, the timeline of a project has been impacted. Almost 10 years back developers would commit to delivering a project to buyers in 36 months. Now right from the start buyers are informed to hold a 5-year timeline in mind. There has been an impact on the number of players also entering this field. A number of unexperienced players ventured into this business that led to quite some chaos. While RERA has helped to organize the real estate business, it definitely needs to solve the grievances of customers and developers alike.”

Kavi Jain, Architect, Nirman added, “Prior to the implementation of RERA, there were several players who were trying to set shop in the real estate field. Post 2016, it’s only the most serious players who have managed to deliver and complete new projects. The inventory that still remains stalled or unbuilt is that of mostly the non-serious and unexperienced players who had ventured before RERA came into action.”