Centre issues advisory to all states / UTs and their real estate regulatory authorities

New Delhi, Sep 16: In view of the situation created by the global pandemic COVID-19 (Corona Virus), reverse migration of labourers and breakdown of construction materials supply chains, the construction activities of real estate projects were affected adversely across the country. To protect the interest of all stakeholders including homebuyers, Central Government issued an advisory to all States / UTs and their Real Estate Regulatory Authorities to treat COVID-19 pandemic as force majeure and automatically extend the registration/completion date of all projects registered under RERA for a period of 6 months where completion date expires on or after March 25, 2020 and to allow further extension of 3 months, if the situation so demands, for the reasons to be recorded in writing and also extend concurrently the timelines of other statutory compliances under RERA. Further, as part of ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, various other incentives/reliefs have been provided for the Real Estate Sector such as; special refinancing facility of Rs 10,000 crore at Reserve Bank of India’s Policy Repo Rate to National Housing Bank for supporting Housing Finance Companies (HFCs); Rs 45,000 crore Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for Microfinance Institutions, NBFC & HFCs; extension of Credit Link Subsidy Scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Urban till March 31, 2021; Scheme for Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for migrant labours and urban poor. All these measures aim to address the issue of liquidity disruptions to augment the flow of funds to the real estate sector. This was informed by Minister of State (I/C) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.