Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra on Tuesday launched realtors' body NAREDCO's e-commerce platform for marketing of completed residential units and said the portal has potential to become "Amazon of Indian real estate".
The portal 'HousingForAll.com' should be credible and transparent, he said adding that there should also be redressal system for consumers' grievances.
"This website is not for NAREDCO but for consumers and homebuyers who can take informed decision," Mishra said in his address after launching the portal.
A similar portal would be launched by realtors' body CREDAI, he added.
The National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), formed under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, would list only completed RERA-registered housing projects on the platform.
After the launch, the portal will be open for one month only for the real estate developers to register their projects (January 14 to February 13).
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The portal will be opened for homebuyers with a 45-day sale period starting from February 14. For the initial 15 days, buyers will be able to view offers and shortlist their homes and will be able to start making the purchase of homes from March 1 till March 31, 2020.
NAREDCO expects over 1,000 projects would be listed in the online home-buying festival for ready-to-move-in homes.
Buyers can directly book/reserve a unit from the portal with a refundable payment of only Rs 25,000. They will also get money back guarantee where their initial deposit made on portal is completely secured and fully refundable in case buyer elects not to purchase the unit. Customers will be immediately notified if any units they have shortlisted are already sold.
CREDAI-MCHI, CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, Builders Association of India (BAI), and Indian Merchant Chambers (IMC) are also partners in this initiative.
Speaking at the event, RERA Haryana Chairman K K Khandelwal said there are total of 13 lakh unsold housing units across the country and 4 lakh such units in major 7-8 cities. This portal would contribute to the growth of the sector, he added.
RERA Uttar Pradesh Chairman Rajive Kumar described it as a good initiative and said all projects listed on the portal should be registered under the RERA.
PNB Housing Finance Ltd MD Sanjaya Gupta said the launch of portal can boost sentiment but stressed that service standards should be good.
Gupta said rental homes and student housing should also be marketed through this portal.
"In the past five years, the average age of a homebuyer has gone up and not come down. It used to be between 28 years and 32 years which today has gone as high as 37 years to 42 years. You should realise that millennials are delaying the process of buying a real estate asset because they are highly mobile. Sales process too takes much longer than before," he said.
NAREDCO Chairman Rajeev Talwar demanded that the government should allow one-time restructuring of debt taken by real estate developers. He also pitched that subvention scheme should be permitted again.
Rajan Bandelkar, who is president of Naredco Maharashtra, said subvention scheme benefits customers. Under this scheme, which was banned by the NHB last year, developers used to pay interest on home loan on behalf of the customers for a certain period, usually till possession.