Defining the new-age home buyer, understanding how fence-sitters are moving towards making the ‘buy’ decision when it comes to homes, as also dealing with RERA and its impact were the highlights of the inaugural session at the annual CII Realty & Infrastructure Conclave, which was inaugurated in Mumbai. 

Niranjan Hiranandani, Managing Director, Hiranandani Group of Companies said the stake holders in Indian real estate needed to ramp up the quantum of work by eight times i.e. 800 per cent, if the target of ‘Housing For All by 2022’ was to be achieved. “It is a challenging situation, where things are yet to speed up,” he said. On Affordable Housing, Niranjan Hiranandani said high land costs and heavy taxation made ‘affordable Housing’ a concept which was difficult to achieve. Welcoming RERA, he said while it would bring in more transparency and was good for the home buyer; it placed the burden of delays in possession squarely on real estate developers. “There are stakeholders who are also responsible for delays, and they should also be held accountable for delays,” he said.

The Conclave’s theme, “Steering Through Varying Speeds – Championing Various Asset Classes of India Real Estate” was perfect given that different classes of real estate assets were moving at different speeds, said Anuj Puri, Chairman CII Realty & Infrastructure Conclave and Chairman  & Country Head JLL, India. 

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Arun Nanda, Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd said the industry needed to go back to basics, and pay attention to what the customer wanted. “The world is changing, disruptive is the key word in today’s world; ‘Normalcy’ is what real estate needs to go back to,” he said. Ensuring that work gets done as per schedule was important, as was ensuring that the new age customer and their needs were understood; as also implemented. “The new age customer will go to Consumer Fora, if there are shortcomings as regards what was promised and does not get delivered,” he said. He also stressed on the need for real estate companies to work out finances and handle debt properly, saying this was among the biggest challenges facing Indian real estate.

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