BDA Webinar turns out a big draw

The COVID-19 crisis offers great opportunity to the real estate industry to reshape mega cities like Mumbai but this can only happen if specific policy changes are announced by the authorities. These were the key takeaways from the Brihanmumbai Developers Association (BDA) 'Mega Unity Webinar,' held in Mumbai recently. The mega webinar brought various developers associations, channel partners, architects, engineers, and allied associations on a common platform for the first time ever. It highlighted the pains of the real estate sector and came up with practical solutions and suggestions. Harrish Jain, Vice President, BDA, explained, “Real estate has been facing multiple problems and now the current crisis of COVID-19 has added to the sufferings. Earlier, we were communicating differently with the government and that was not the right way. Uniting the associations will give us a voice which is stronger and will help us to communicate with the government in the right way."

Nayan Shah, President, CREDAI MCHI, drew a comparison between real estate as a percentage of India's economy vis-à-vis that in the USA, UK and China. “About 6% of India's economy is real estate; its value is $1.20-1.40 billion, our share will go upto $500-600 bn in the next 5-6 years. The government of India is spending more than ₹7 lakh crores in agriculture, while the real estate sector is only asking for ₹30,000 - 40,000 crore to grow from $140 bn to $500-600 bn. We are going to try to get relief from the central government and the Reserve Bank of India and the finance ministry, not as a matter of sympathy but because we have the strength and we can make a big difference to the economic status of the country.”

Ajay Ashar, spokesperson of the CREDAI MCHI MMR Action Committee, praised BDA for having accumulated so many players on one platform. “When the ₹20 lakh crore package was announced we had great expectations from the government as we are the second-largest employment generating sector. However, we were disappointed. Restructuring of loans is very important."

CA Ramesh Prabhu, Chairman, Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA), affirmed that redevelopment is the need of the hour for Mumbai. "Every society is looking at developers to perform but we also understand the challenges. Applying GST on the rehab portion is a harsh step and the government needs to come up with some package for real estate redevelopment.”