Centre to seek public views on rental housing policy

After passing the Real Estate Bill in the Parliament, the Centre is in advanced stages in shaping up a policy for rental housing in urban areas.

“We will put the model policy out for public comment for the duration of one month,” a senior official in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation told BusinessLine .

A presentation on model tenancy laws was made to the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday evening.

As per Census 2011, over 27 per cent of urban residents across the country are living in rented accommodation.

The Draft National Urban Rental Housing Policy is aimed at promoting rental housing as an option for the destitute, homeless and disabled people; social rental housing for the socially and economically weaker sections; affordable rental housing for specific target groups such as migrant labours, working women, students etc; rental housing as a stop gap towards aspirant home buyers; and institutional rental housing for working class.

The draft policy aims to generate demand by providing fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to tenants such as tax exemptions, housing vouchers etc, apart from encouraging creation of institutional owners such as REITs, corporate firms, not-for-profit entities, municipal housing companies, public sector units.

On the supply side, the interventions proposed are regulatory reforms such as implementation of Model Tenancy Act, 2015, apart from encouraging public private partnership, special purpose vehicles, and residential rental management companies for creation of social/need-based rental housing.

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