Barely a month after DLF first slashed property prices by about 15 per cent across the country,chairman K P Singh told The Indian Express today that there would be no further cuts in realty prices,in the near future. Prices have already reduced by 15 20 per cent. There is no further scope for reduction at a time when input costs are so high. Price cuts are not sustainable at this point, said Singh,in an Idea Exchange session at The Indian Express office. DLF has been slashing prices for residential projects spread across the country. Its project in Bangalore has had its prices cut from Rs 2,775 per square foot to Rs 1,850 per square foot. Last month,DLF repriced a project in Hyderabad,from Rs 4000 per square foot to Rs 1,850 pre square foot. Customers of DLFs Chennai project threatened to exit from the project unless prices were revised. The basic selling price for new apartment bookings now stands revised to Rs 2,750 per sq ft. ON HOW TO JUMPSTART REAL ESTATE Regarding policies to stimulate demand and attract more home buyers,Singh suggested a mix of fiscal and monetary measures. Interest rate for a home buyer should be brought down to 7 per cent while the rate should be about 9 per cent for the developer, said Singh. He added that the limit of priority sector home loan should be increased from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. Also,the EMI amount on a loan must be entirely offset against taxable income, said Singh. At present,a person can avail of tax deduction of Rs 1,00,000 for repayment of principal amount under Section 80 C and Rs 1,50,000 a year for repayment of interest paid under Section 24 (b). ON THE NEED FOR A REGULATOR When questioned about alleged underhand dealings prevalent in the sector and the consequent need for a regulatory body,Singh said the sector was already highly regulated. This is a mistaken belief that we need greater regulation. The developer cannot do anything without a government approval. Malpractices can generally be traced to the broker level and that needs to be regulated, he said. On what actions customers should resort to when developers delay construction,Singh highlighted the use of consumer courts. There are enough consumer courts to help the customer. Also,developers do not want to delay since delaying by a day or a month comes with an attached penalty,within the concerned contract, added Singh. ON DWARKA CONVENTION CENTRE Singh said that the work on completing construction of the Rs 6,000-crore International Convention Centre in Dwarka in Delhi had been put on hold. We bid for the convention centre at an astronomical reserve price. With prices having come down,we had asked the government to make a special purpose vehicle to get additional funding,maybe even from sources abroad. But the Delhi Development Authority did not allow it, he said. We cannot build when there is no outside funding and prices are half. DDA had awarded development of the convention centre in Sector 24,Dwarka to DLF in July 2007. ON DANKUNI EXIT When asked about DLFs withdrawal from the Dankuni project in West Bangal,Singh said that the governments inability to acquire land for the projects led to the withdrawal. The government was incapable of acquiring the required land. Hence,we withdrew, said Singh. DLF had planned to invest Rs 33,000 crore in a 5,000-acre township-cum-industrial park project at Dankuni.
