CENTRE BRINGS HOUSING SCHEME
With an eye on the urban poor, migrants and mid-income families, FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced several incentives to provide low-cost rented accommodation and interest subsidy on home loans.
NEWDELHI/BENGALURU: With an eye on the urban poor, migrants and mid-income families, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced several incentives to provide low-cost rented accommodation and interest subsidy on home loans.
The government on Thursday extended till March 2021 the benefit of interest subsidy on home loans under the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) for households that fall in the middle-income group with an annual income of between ₹6 lakh and ₹18 lakh. The scheme, introduced in 2017, ended on 31 March.
Sitharaman said the Centre will launch an affordable rental housing scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to help migrants and urban poor find housing. The Centre will convert government-funded housing into affordable rental housing complexes under a public-private partnership (PPP), she said.
The incentives came a day after the FM granted a six-month extension of the registration and completion date for all projects registered under Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), offering some relief for distressed developers. This will apply to all real estate projects expiring on or after 25 March, 2020, and individual applications are not needed.
Sitharaman said the CLSS scheme has benefited 330,000 middle-class families and is expected to benefit another 250,000 in FY21.
According to government estimates, the subsidy scheme will give a ₹70,000 crore boost to the housing sector. Besides creating jobs, it will also stimulate demand for steel, cement, transport and other construction material.
CLSS, which comes under PMAY for middle-income group households, was unveiled in 2016.
Sitharaman said manufacturing units, industries and institutions will be given incentives to develop affordable housing complexes on their private land. Central government agencies and state government organizations will also be encouraged to develop housing complexes.