Realty News Roundup: Odisha Govt Notifies New Policy To Promote Auction Of Govt Land; M'rashtra Builders To Get Building Plan Approvals Online

Realty News Roundup is PropGuide's selection of top stories from the real estate sector.

Top News

The Odisha government has notified a new policy asking development authorities such as BDA/CDA to auction 80% land transferred to them for real estate projects. The new policy aims to generate funds for urban development. This report in The Economic Times says that the development authorities may develop up to 20% of land transferred to them by the government. The rest of land should be developed or disposed of by way of auction or under public private partnership model.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in Pune that his government will soon start granting permissions for building plans online. The Chief Minister said that the government is committed to make the process of sanctioning building permissions completely free of corruption. Fadnavis said the builders won't be required to visit municipal corporations for building plans. In this report in Times of India, he said, "Once the entire system is online, there is no need for them to go to municipal corporations. The state government is working towards making this model operational."

Off the front page

A special report in The Hindu-Business Line features how realty portals are going all out to woo buyers. The report says that from flash sales of houses to integrating government-approved master plans with maps for better property searches, real estate portals are going all out to increase convenience for property seekers and boost buyer sentiment. The report highlights PropTiger's newly launched feature 'City Master Plan' that "merges government-approved master plans of cities with geographical maps and project plans listed on the portal." On flash sales, the report quotes PropTiger CEO Dhruv Agarwala saying, “Since a house, unlike a shoe or a watch, is not a standardised product, the consumer will not buy a flat just because it is discounted. However, if consumers are responding to such flash sales, it is good for the ecosystem.”

Homebuyers in Noida have urged the Uttar Pradesh government not to implement prevailing circle rates, which are likely to be revised in August. They face significant cost escalations when they register their properties after the Centre notifies the eco-sensitive zone around the Okhla Bird Sanctuary. A delegation of homebuyers met Gautam Budh Nagar's district magistrate N P Singh and asked him to take up their issue with the state government and make sure that they don't end up paying the current circle rates. 

In an interesting development, a Navi Mumbai builder booked for selling flat built on parking lot. The action came after a 60-year-old woman identified as Indubai Nanaware lodged a police complaint against this builder. The woman alleged that the builder,  from whom she had purchased a flat for Rs 25 lakhs, had cheated her as the flat was built on a parking lot. 

Reality firm Ambience is reported to be expecting Rs 150 crore as annual rental income by leasing out a recently constructed corporate office tower in Gurgaon. According to this report, the Delhi-based developer has constructed the tower with one million sq ft of leasable area and has already leased 2.5 lakh sq ft of office space to Panasonic India.

Opinion

Here is an  analysis of the Real Estate Bill published in the edit page of The Asian Age newspaper. The author, Pradeep S Mehta, who is the secretary general of CUTS, argues that the Bill in its present form is watered down on many aspects and demands more focus on the consumers. He also bats for regulation of the real estate sector saying the need of a specific regulator in the real estate sector is more than that of a regulator for stock market, since real estate per se affects a larger set of consumers. Read the full article here.