new delhi extraordinary times make for interesting relationships thanks to the crisis in the real estate sector indias property pashas so far known for their rivalry seem to have realised that closing ranks could only help bolster business at least thats what came through at the sundayet real estate ceo roundtable where the panellists showed signs of bonhomie and optimism and eventually agreed that this was the best time to buy propertyagree they did but not before some customary fireworks some of the panellists took jibes and even snapped at each other with forceful gesticulation but in the end they were unanimous that the discussion couldnt have been better timedin fact the speakers at the roundtable held in association with le meridien here on thursday also sought to dispel the negative sentiments surrounding the realty sector and asked buyers to go out and look for value deals most of them underscored the need for a national regulator for the sector and urged the government to promote publicprivate partnership for making housing affordable this discussion is timely and will help catch the attention of everyone who matters ranging from consumers to policy makers said shravan gupta vicechairman md emaarmgf sanjay verma executive md south asia cushman wakefield was somewhat peeved that real estate only gets talked about during good times and for the wrong reasons but he too grabbed the opportunity to voice his views on tackling the negative sentiments about indias real estate marketrohtas goel cmd omaxe group almost rolled up his sleeves and dispensed with the formalities of corporate jargon or power point presentations and made an impassioned plea to the government to step in and support the sagging sector we are not asking for the massive bailout package given to the airlines industry but real estate companies too should be allowed to make staggered payments in dealing with the rs 25000cr debt he said he agreed that while the pain was sharp the opportunity to thrash out issues at the roundtable was welcometalking with competitors too can perhaps help destress as some ceos found out though mr verma started on the back foot because mr goel had asked him not to say anything negative over a cup of tea before the discussions kicked off in the end everyone agreed with him that even though these were tough times indians dream of owning a house still held out huge potentialinterestingly mr goel even took a cue from mr vermas cinderella party story which he used to describe the irresponsible us ibankers to buttress some points he had made raj vikas verma executive director national housing bank exuded confidence and described the indian housing finance market as well regulated with good underlying assetseven as the private sector participants highlighted the woes of the sector union urban development secretary m ramachandran stressed the need for affordable housing which he felt could be achieved only through publicprivate partnershipquestions flew thick and