CREDAI meets finance minister to discuss Covid disruptions

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on April 20 and sought the government's support to deal with the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact on the real estate sector. Many senior members of CREDAI, including its new president, attended the meeting in Kolkata. The real estate sector faced severe difficulties last year with the flattening demand, a challenging funding environment, and increasing compliance-based costs. The onset of the pandemic exposed the fragile financial health and business models of real estate developers in India. The financial health of developers in the preceding 12 months can be seen in two parts – the lockdown phase and the unlocking phase. Addressing a virtual press conference on April 7, CREDAI President Harsh Vardhan Patodia had expressed concerns over the second major wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and said it would take time to assess the impact. Patodia, Managing Director of Kolkata-based Unimark group, who took charge as CREDAI president from April 1, had said that the CREDAI would again urge the state governments to reduce stamp duty on registration of properties to boost the real estate sector. As we have reported earlier, the Maharashtra government recently scrapped the 2% stamp duty waiver and decided to reinstate 5% stamp duty on property registrations. The association had sought infrastructure status for the realty sector, GST input tax credit for both housing and commercial segments, faster environment clearance and easier credit availability. Established in 1999, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) is the apex body for private real estate developers in India, representing over 13,000 developers through 21 states and 217 city chapters across the country. Image Source Also read: Lockdown impact: CREDAI Pune writes to Maha govt Also read: Why housing went through the roof during Covid: Care Ratings