"To transform Indian real estate sector into the best paradigm in the world is vision 20-20" said Mr Anuj Puri, Conference Chairman & Chairman and Country Head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj at the Conference on Indian Real Estate 20-20 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Mumbai today. Mr Puri laid down the issues impacting the growth of the Indian real estate sector and the need to focus on those challenges to move ahead. "The need is to recognize and address following issues:

Demand & Supply: With rising interest rates and inflation, residential real estate demand remains. However the need is to anticipate the needs of the end users and match demand with supply;

Liquidity: Though liquidity was not an issue earlier, a balance between risk and return is gaining importance and therefore look at innovative financial structures becomes important;

Market performance: Stock markets and real estate markets being interlinked, market performance is critical;

Infrastructure: Indian leading cities are strained for infrastructure. With the infrastructure gap ever widening, it remains an important challenge;

Talent: Skilled manpower and training is a definite requirement;

Sustainability: Changes at the levels of developers, occupiers, funders and regulators is called for", emphasized Mr Puri.

In his keynote address at the CII Programme, Mr Jamshyd N Godrej, Past President, CII & Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd dwelled on the importance of sustainable development and environment friendly real estate development. "Green buildings are not only socially important but also economically", said Mr Godrej. He emphasized that cities can be sustainable in case there is holistic growth. "The need is that industry consisting of developers, architects, funders and the Government should come together to formulate a sustainable ideal policy", stressed Mr Godrej. He made good his point by instance of the centre of excellence in Hyderabad called 'Green Business Centre' which has been world's first green building and which has succeeded in conserving energy much beyond projections.

This was followed by a panel discussion consisting of eminent panelists, who discussed and debated on the challenges posed by infrastructure and whether the Indian real estate sector was sufficiently geared up to meet them. They agreed that development would happen only where there is adequate support of infrastructure.

Discussing on how to improve infrastructure links with real estate, Mr Hemant Joshi, Managing Director & CEO CRISIL Risk and Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, stressed that with proper infrastructure township policies of the government can succeed and this would also lead to realistic fall in real estate prices. "An increase in spending on infrastructure from the current 5% to 9% is critical', said Mr Anish Nanavaty, Principal, IDFC.

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