Staff Reporter :
Leaders of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) have urged the government to reduce registration fees of flats and housing plots by 50 per cent in the next budget to help increase their sales.
They made the plea on Monday at a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
Senior REHAB leaders Nurun Nabi Chowdhury Shaon, Liakat Ali Bhuiyan and Md Abdul Khaiyum were also present at the meeting.
During the meeting, REHAB leaders requested the minister to reduce flat registration fees from the existing 15.5 per cent to 7.0 per cent and creation of a long-term (30 years) refinancing fund worth Tk 20,000 crore for the sector.
The buyers should be provided with bank loans at 5.0 per cent interest rate from the fund. “The flat registration cost in Bangladesh is much higher than any other countries in South Asia. Buyers are also losing their interest to buy flats and plots due to high registration cost,” REHAB President Alamgir Shamsul Alamin told The New Nation after the meeting.
He said, “We made the proposal for slashing the registration fees, taxes and other charges to the minister to help low and middle-income families buy homes at reduced cost as well as boost the business of the realtors.”
Alamgir Shamsul Alamin said they had long been perusing the issue to the government and hope it will take the decision through the budgetary measures in the next fiscal.
The REHAB President also said that they have once again raised the demand for creation of a Tk 20,000 crore refinance fund for the real estate sector to create the access of cheap credit for the buyers.
REHAB commenced its journey in 1991 with only 11 members, but has now grown to include 1,191 developers. The association is the only trade organization for real estate developers in Bangladesh.
As a private enterprise, REHAB has already contributed 15% to Bangladesh’s economy.
