Realty News Roundup: Parliament Panel Submits Report on Real Estate Bill; Shapoorji Pallonji Clinches US$200mn FDI For Affordable Homes

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

Top News

The Rajya Sabha panel on Real Estate Bill has submitted its report recommending a host of measures in the interest of home buyers. The committee has also favoured jail term for defaulting and rogue builders. Meanwhile, the Opposition parties have submitted their dissent note alleging that the Bill is not strong enough to protect the homebuyers. 

Reports suggest that Reserve Bank of India in its meeting scheduled for next week is likely to hold rates. Though it is expected to approve another rate cut by the end of this year. Read here.

Affordable homes segment is getting more takers. Latest in this, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group has partnered with Standard Chartered Private Equity, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Asian Development Bank, to form a joint venture to build quality affordable residential projects in India. Read here.

Latest in the Smart City fray, Uttar Pradesh has shortlisted 13 cities for the project. The cities are- Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Agra, Rampur, Varanasi, Jhansi, Allahabad, and Kanpur. Meanwhile, in Andhra Pradesh cities of Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Kakinada are in the forefront in the smart city race. Reports suggest that Vijayawada is lagging behind. In yet another development, reports coming in from Maharasthra say that Nashik is likely to make it for the smart city list.

Off the front page

Priyanka Chopra's craze for new properties is making news in the Bollywood. The actress had recently bought a luxury home in Mumbai and latest reports suggest that this time around she has invested in property in Canada. Read here.

In an interesting development, a real estate sensation has now become a motion picture in Kannada. Read this piece to know how.

Opinion

A reassurance for the realty sector in India. Bhupesh Bhandari writes in Business Standard why real estate may not crash. Read here.

Readers also have an opinion. Siddharth Surana from Chhindwara writes to Business Standard in response to its editorial 'Unsold Homes'. Builders should be ready to forget about their losses, sell at lower prices and focus on the cash-flow and topline for the time being," he argues.