Though the realty sector may be passing through recession, yet the Hooda government’s new ‘Affordable Housing Policy-2013’ has brought cheer to the builders. In fact, the builder-friendly housing policy has evoked tremendous response among the builders with 90 realty firms evincing interest in the policy. As expected, 52 builders have applied under the policy in Gurgaon, followed by 16 in Sohna, 10 in Faridabad, three each in Jhajjar, Palwal and Rewari, two in Karnal and one in Nilokheri. In the pre-election year, the policy will provide a bonanza for the recession-hit real estate sector as the builders had been given a slew of incentives, including exemption from licence fees, infrastructure development charges, FAR of 225 instead of current 175, higher ground coverage of 50 per cent against 35 per cent. Besides the incentives, the most attractive component of the policy was the pricing of the dwelling units as the maximum allotment rates for Gurgaon, Faridabad and the Pinjore-Kalka urban estate (Panchkula) has been kept at Rs 4,000 per square feet. For other high and medium potential towns, the rates will be Rs 3,600 per square feet and Rs 3,000 for the low potential towns. On August 6, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda unveiled the policy for mass availability of nearly 1.25 lakh dwelling units at affordable rates through private builders in the next five years. While the powerful builder lobby had hailed the policy as something which will revive the real estate sector struggling to come out of recession, the investors and the end-users were up in arms against an undue benefit to the powerful builder lobby by the government. “In fact, the policy will make the housing a mere dream for the common man in the urban areas across the state, primarily due to exorbitant prices fixed by the state government,” said Ankush Sharma, a Haryana Government employee. The big players in the realty sector have lapped up the new policy of the government apparently due to various incentives being offered to the promoters. The major players, who have applied for the approval of new housing projects in the national capital region, particularly in Gurgaon, included DLF, Emaar MGF Land Limited, Raheja Developers and Suncity Projects.