'35% housing reservation for poor will hit middle class'

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), the apex realtors' body on November 6 strongly opposed the Union government's proposal for reserving 35 per cent of the housing units for poor. Credai says that this would result in rise in prices for the middle-class people.

Such a directive, without any incentives to the developer community, would only burden the open market buyers, mainly the middle income group, which will be forced to cross-subsidise the LIG or EWS, said a CREDAI memorandum to Union Minister for Housing and Poverty Alleviation Ajay Maken.

CREDAI, which has over 8,800 members across India, has sought time with Maken to discuss various issues concerning the housing industry.

CREDAI president Lalit Kumar Jain said that the government should model the housing policy to suit the poor in such a way to encourage developers to rush for it rather than taking compulsory steps which ultimately might be counterproductive as they could lead to a fall in the housing stock.

The demand-supply mismatch is one of the reasons for the market price movement and any further fall in the housing stock would only contribute to rise in prices, CREDAI argued.