Realty News Roundup: From Real Estate Bill To Shortage In Construction Industry Workforce

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Under tremendous pressure from opposition parties, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on May 6, 2015, decided to send the Real Estate Bill to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha.

Here are the other major news stories related to real estate: FlipKart has leased the largest office space in India. A study says Real estate is among the sectors in which most of the black money is generated. India might need 76.5 million workers in the construction industry by 2022. Shravan Gupta, MD of Emaar MGF, was let off by a trial court in a case registered against him by the income tax department.

1.  After it was deferred by the Rajya Sabha, the NDA government has decided to send the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha. On May 5, members of the Rajya Sabha had objected to the Bill being listed for the day. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, M Venkaiah Naidu, said the Rajya Sabha will discuss it again after consulting with other parties. The Bill is aimed at regulating transactions between homebuyers and builders in India. It seeks to establish state-level regulatory authorities called Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs) with which residential projects should be registered.

2. To expand its workforce and operations, Flipkart has leased a two-million sq. ft. office campus in Bangalore. Though Flipkart earlier wanted to lease three million sq. ft. from the builder, Embassy Group, this is still India’s largest office space leasing deal. Of the office space it has taken on lease, 106,000 sq. ft. is in Mantri Commercio, 37,674 sq. ft. is in Salarpuria Tech Point and 9,000 sq. ft. is in Brigade Court. For the leased office space, Flipkart will pay a monthly rent of Rs. 50 per sq ft. Flipkart is India’s biggest e-commerce company.

3. A study has found that one of the sectors in which most of the unaccounted money generated in India is real estate. Trading and manufacturing, government contracts, gems and jewelry and services are the other sectors. The study was conducted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM).

4. According to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), by 2022, India would need around 76.5 million workers in the building, construction and real estate sectors. Affordable residential projects are expected to be the largest employment generating establishments in the construction industry. The construction industry is the second largest employer in the country and provides jobs to around 45 million people, directly or indirectly.

5. Shravan Gupta, MD of real estate major Emaar MGF, was let off by a trial court in a case filed against him by the income tax department for allegedly not filing income tax returns, after he stated that the Delhi High Court has quashed summons issued against him. According to the income tax (IT) department, Gupta had not furnished details of his bank accounts and had not filed the income tax returns for US $1.5 million for the financial year 2005-06.