
In addition, banks are reluctant to lend money to the sector and the situation worsened after the November 8 announcement scrapping high-denomination currency notes, leading to a fall in real estate sales. In case affordable housing is given infrastructure status, it would lower the borrowing cost for the developers. Also, regulations should be simplified to directly borrow foreign debt, which can cost around 4-5 precent on dollar return, a partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Hemal Mehta said. Echoing similar sentiments, industry experts opined that while it may appear to be a small change, categorizing low-cost housing as infrastructure could have far-reaching results. It may be recalled that real estate industry has been asking for the infrastructure status for affordable housing for the past three years, but this time it is only logical that it could go ahead. This is mainly because the Prime Minister has announced that the new scheme and infrastructure status will help reduce the borrowing cost and help accelerate growth, said an avid real estate market watcher.