2nd National Affordable Housing Summit: Connecting Stakeholders Across Board to Envisage Housing For All Dream

2nd National Affordable Housing Summit: Connecting Stakeholders Across Board to Envisage Housing For All Dream

Housing is one of the three basic necessities of human life. In a country like India, which is one of the largest populous countries, providing roof above the head of all is indeed a humongous task. Moreover, to make housing available and affordable for all, the policymakers and real estate sector of the industry is working towards achieving the goal of Affordable Housing for All.

To discuss, deliberate and explore the multiple avenues in the Housing sector, Elets Technomedia, in association with Department of Housing, Government of Maharashtra, organised the Second National Affordable Housing Summit, Mumbai on November 29, 2019.

The Summit witnessed participation from policymakers and industry experts who spoke on several subjects including Maharashtra’s tryst on Affordable Housing, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), role of Urban Local Bodies and District Administration for Affordable Housing, Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) among others.

The inaugural session, which delved on the theme of ‘Maharashtra’s Tryst with Affordable Housing and Vision 2022 for Housing for All’, saw participation from the who’s who of the housing sector such as Rajendra Mirgane, Joint Chairman, Maharashtra Housing Development Corporation Limited; Anthony De Sa, Chairman, Madhya Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Government of Madhya Pradesh; Deepak Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, Slum Rehabilitation Authority, Mumbai, Government of Maharashtra; Milind Mhaiskar, Vice President and CEO, Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA); K P Bakshi, Chairman, Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) and P K Gupta, Managing Director, R&DB, State Bank of India.

Deepak Kapoor spoke on the role of Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) Maharashtra on providing proper housing facilities to the slum dwellers. Stating the unique trait of Maharashtra slums, Kapoor says, “48.7 ercent of Mumbai lives in slums. However, not all of them are poor. The issue is the lack of poor civic sanity. Slum Rehabilitation Authority Mumbai is working towards improving this situation.”

Taking cue from Kapoor’s address, Anthony de Sa said, “Low-cost housing meant low-quality houses. Hence low-cost housing was replaced by the terms ‘Affordable Housing‘. Houses are so expensive in Mumbai that unless you have an ancestral property you are forced to go to the slum areas.”

Sharing the perspective of housing finance, P K Gupta stated, “Schemes such RERA, Housing for All by 2022, and PMAY have facilitated banks to get into the housing sector. These schemes have also enabled people belonging to every strata of the society to invest in a house of their own.”

“When we talk about housing, we involve several other aspects apart from brick and mortar, which includes electricity, water, finance etc. When we talk about water, we talk about drinking water, drainage system, sewage treatment plant along with re-use of water. When we talk of affordable housing, we are talking about affordable electricity and affordable water as well,” stated K P Bakshi while talking about the role of Water Department in Affordable Housing for All projects.

Milind Mhaiskar and Rajendra Mirgane shared details on the ongoing mega projects in Maharashtra on the Affordable Housing projects.

Sharing an international perspective, H.E Tang Guocai, Consul General, People’s Republic of China said, “One of the priorities of the Chinese Government is to provide affordable housing to its people. Over the past 20 years, we have provided affordable housing to more than 200 million of our people and the guiding principle has been always letting the market play the leading role, but at the same time the government also has three top priorities – one is poverty alleviation, avoiding major financial risks, and to improve the environment quality.”

Industry Perspective

Offering the industry perspective, Ajay Tyagi, CEO, Rialtes Technologies said, “Maharashtra is the leading state when it comes to affordable housing but still, there is a lot of work to be done.”

Vineet Chattree, Managing Director, Svatantra Micro Housing Finance Corporation shared perspective on the housing finance by saying, “We do not sell housing loans, we provide housing loans. We go by the people who have the intent to have a home but don’t want to buy a house. Basically people who cannot get an affordable housing loan from the banks.”

Panel discussions were held on the themes of ‘Need of the Hour for the Success of PMAY, Housing and Infrastructure Projects and Role of HFCs’, ‘Role of Urban Local Bodies and District Administration in Affordable Housing’ and ‘RERA: Increasing Transparency & Efficiency in Real Estate’, which were participated by policymakers across the country, who offered their insights on the housing sector from multiple perspectives.

Also Read: Elets 2nd National Affordable Housing Summit to explore multiple avenues of Housing sector

The prominent speakers were Kirankumar Dinkarrao Gitte, Special Secretary Department of Urban Development, Government of Tripura; Bhim Singh, Managing Director, Chhattisgarh Housing Board & CEO Raipur Development Authority; Sameer Unhale, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Thane Municipal Corporation, and CEO Thane Smart City, Maharashtra and Shruti, Additional Chief Executive Officer, Noida Development Authority to name a few.

The Summit also awarded and felicitated multiple stakeholders in the Housing sector to recognise their contribution towards Affordable Housing for All Project.

"Exciting news! Elets eGov is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest insights!" Click here!
Be a part of Elets Collaborative Initiatives. Join Us for Upcoming Events and explore business opportunities. Like us on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter , Instagram.