With material costs going up about 35 per cent and labour costs 100 per cent in the past three years and securing labour a major challenge, the real estate prices are in for upward revision, according to Mr Lalit Kumar Jain, President of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai).

“However, the price hike could vary from city to city depending on various factors such as supply of land. This means, metros such as New Delhi and Mumbai, where there is shortage of land, may show different patterns and much higher prices compared to a city like Hyderabad, where there is good supply,” he said.

Addressing a press conference here today at NAR-India 2011, Mr Jain said the Government needs to address the issue of approval costs, which is estimated at 40 per cent. This could be significantly brought down by cutting short time for approvals through single window. The taxation accounts for about 30-36 per cent of the total cost.

Referring to the labour aspect, he said that the NREGS (National Rural employment Guarantee Scheme) needs to be tweaked to ensure that the labour is employed more efficiently.

He said: “Credai was not opposed to the Real Estate Development Regulatory Authority. But the issue is to first address the real estate sector’s concerns through a holistic approach rather than tackling them in a piecemeal fashion.”

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