CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS IN INDIA

Abstract

After India opened up its economy the FDI flow, Domestic Private Investment has grown by leaps and bounds in the Real Estate Market. But with increase in investment and growth of real estate sector in India, consumers were often defrauded with loopholes existing in the land laws. To address the concern of consumers and to instill accountability in the market the Government of India enacted the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, which mandates compulsory registration of all residential and commercial real estate projects, promoters and real estate agents under RERA. The grievance mechanism has been made robust and both promoters, real estate agents and investors – allotees, lessors, etc can approach the State RERA Authority when any party or project is in contravention of the provisions of the RERA Act. However, the nation has seen massive scams in the real estate sector and investors should invest cautiously in real estate. The investment in this sector is profitable in long-term as there is illiquidity and price of land and property are rising all times. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the Real Estate Industry hard post Covid recovery is facing labour shortage, reduced demand, and supply of raw materials at all time low. One of the biggest Property Giant in the world, Evergrande is on brink of bankruptcy with over US $ 300 billion dollars of debt. If a company of such stature fails then the confidence of real estate investors would also go down and the economic spillover would be massive around the world. The Indian Government have proposed several schemes to revamp banks credit functioning and tax exemptions for the real estate investment. With economic recovery expected at 9.5% GDP by Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 the investors’ confidence in the industry is expected to remain and India won’t fall into the traps of 2008 like Recession.