The Indian Iris Government Policies | Government Schemes | Government of India | State Government
NEW DELHI: The government will soon come out with a house rental policy, which will allow migrants in cities to take a house on rent from government bodies for certain years and subsequently they can own them by paying the entire cost in easy installments.
This scheme known as “Rent to Own” will be one of the components of the ambitious National Urban Rental Housing Policy, which the housing ministry will anchor.
Union housing minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said the model Act will be placed before Cabinet for approval. Once the model Act is notified, states can adopt it. He added rental housing will be a key supplement to the Housing for All scheme of government, primarily aimed at meeting the requirement of ever growing migration to urban areas.
His ministry has already moved the Cabinet proposal, which aims at increasing supply of housing stock, putting in place enabling provisions to encourage property owners to rent out their houses. At present, property owners hesitate to rent out properties because of archaic rent control laws, which tilt in favour of tenants.
“The model Act proposes for repealing or amending the Rent Control laws. The new or amended law will be a leveller to protect the interest of tenants and property owners, which will be mutually agreeable,” said a ministry official. Due to archaic laws tenants are paying only a few hundred or thousand rupees for prime residential and commercial properties in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
“A handful of schemes have been proposed to meet the requirement of different types of migrants and depending on their financial capability. The Rent to Own scheme will be fit for people, who shift to cities for a good job and want to own a house, but can’t pay upfront or get loan,” said a source.
There will be specific schemes for migrants and homeless, who need affordable accommodation, and similarly for working women and students. There is also a proposal to convert slums on government land to rental housing where the municipal body will give 10 years “no eviction guarantee” to the tenants and charge rental.
To encourage people to build houses for rental housing, the policy proposes fiscal and non-fiscal incentives such as rebate in property tax and treating properties used as hostels as residential properties for calculating tax and other utility charges such as for electricity and water.
Source: TimesofIndia
