The Union Budget 2025-26 that was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama focused on economic expansion, infrastructure development, MSMEs, futuristic cities, and middle-class welfare and brings substantial relief for the middle class. It also aims to stimulate rural consumption – an essential step toward unlocking India’s economic potential.
Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Group said the Finance Minister announced zero income tax for individuals earning up to INR 12 lakh annually, providing a major consumption boost.
“This move is also expected to strengthen demand for affordable housing. Additionally, the new income tax bill will retain nearly 50% of existing provisions while introducing personal tax reforms and rationalizing TDS and TCS regimes by streamlining rates and thresholds.”
Dr.Samantak Das, Chief Economist and Head of Research & REIS, India, JLL said that India’s Union Budget is set to unleash animal spirits in the Indian economy. A wide-ranging push on people, industry and quality of life improvements across different sections of the population makes this a citizen-centric budget.
“GCCs have been clearly identified as key growth drivers to India’s services sector progress. GCCs account for over 1/3rd of all occupied Grade A office stock in the country and India accounts for over 50% of global real estate demand from GCCs. The plan for a national framework to help states expand GCC footprint to Tier-II cities is a forward-looking step towards tapping India’s vast talent pool outside the major cities. This will help in fostering inclusive economic growth beyond major metropolitan areas.”
Badal Yagnik, Chief Executive Officer, Colliers India said that the National Manufacturing Mission, guidance framework for GCCs, start-up focused AIF, SWAMIH 2 fund and Urban Challenge Fund, all hold potential to significantly accelerate real estate growth across multiple real estate segments.
“The budget has continued to focus on improving the ease of doing business through innovation, technological upgradation and sharing of data between public & private sector establishments. The extension of the SWAMIH fund is a much-expected move as several real, estate projects continue to reel under stress due to funding constraints, delaying delivery of homes. Additionally, rationalization of taxes and enhancement of exemption limits can boost disposable income spurring consumption levels and real estate investments, particularly in residential real estate and alternate financial instruments such as REITs.”
Shrinivas Rao, FRICS, CEO, Vestian said the Union Budget 2025 focuses on employment generation, boosting domestic consumption, and enhancing connectivity by concentrating on the rapid development of physical infrastructure and increasing disposable income of citizens.
“This will have a positive impact on increasing demand for all real estate asset classes across the country. Furthermore, the budget has an allocation of INR 15,000 Cr under the SWAMIH Fund for addressing liquidity issues of delayed housing projects. This along with the digitization of land records is expected to strengthen homebuyers’ confidence.”
Piyush Bothra, Co-Founder and CFO, Square Yards said that the recent budget introduces much-needed relief, particularly with the zero-tax provision on annual incomes up to Rs 12 lakh—a move that enhances disposable income and is expected to support homebuyers.
“Additionally, the allocation of Rs 15,000 crore under the SWAMIH Fund for completing 1 lakh stalled housing units is a significant intervention, providing relief to buyers impacted by delayed projects and supporting supply-side stakeholders.”
Peush Jain, MD-Commercial Leasing and Advisory, Anarock Group said that the government in Budget 2025-26 announced the formulation of a national framework in areas like talent availability, infrastructure, building byelaws etc. as guidance to states for promoting Global Capability Centres in emerging tier 2 cities.
“GCCs have been driving demand for office spaces and this move, alongside the government’s emphasis on improving live ability in Indian cities and Infrastructure development will go a long way in establishing India as a hub for Global Capacity Centre. This move will boost employment opportunities, creation of new office supplies and draw national level developers to these cities. The office sector growth is expected to stay buoyant with record leasing activity led by GCCs.”
According to Anarock, developers are currently developing around 25-30 million square feet of office space across major cities for catering to the requirements of domestic and foreign companies.
Samir Jasuja, Founder and CEO of PropEquity said that The Budget’s focus on improving infrastructure through PPP projects and interest free loan to States for capital expenditure, setting up an Urban Challenge Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore for rejuvenation of Indian cities will improve the real estate activity in metro and tier 2 cities by encouraging developers to invest and partake in the development.
“SWAMIH 2.0 with an allocation of Rs 15,000 crore is a small yet welcome move considering that the government is targeting to complete 1 lakh units. The government must come up with simplified mechanism to allow bigger developers to take over these stalled units so as to expedite the completion of over 5 lakh units currently stalled.”
According to PropEquity, close to 2000 housing projects across 42 cities comprising 5.08 lakh units have been stalled. 1,636 projects totalling 4,31,946 units in 14 tier I cities and 345 projects totalling 76,256 units in 28 tier II cities have been stalled.
Anupama Reddy, Vice President & Co-Group Head – Corporate Ratings, ICRA Limited said a major announcement in the Union Budget for FY2026 is the reduction in income tax which will enhance the disposable income in the hands of consumers and is a positive for affordable and mid-income housing segments.
“The continued focus of the government on the affordable housing segment, as reflected in the higher allocation of 54% towards the PMAY-Urban programme in FY2026 BE as compared to FY2025 RE, should aid the affordable urban housing segment. Further, the introduction of a second tranche of SWAMIH Fund of Rs. 150 billion is likely to provide much-needed liquidity support to the stressed residential projects and support in the completion of an additional 40,000 housing units.”
Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director of Knight Frank India said, “While the Budget did not specifically address affordable housing, the Rs 15,000 crore allocation towards SWAMIH Fund will support the delivery of stressed project for completion of affordable and mid-income housing project.
Ramesh Nair, CEO, Mindspace Business Parks REIT said the Union Budget 2025 takes a decisive step towards strengthening India’s urban infrastructure and fostering business-friendly environments.
“The Rs 1 lakh crore Urban Challenge Fund and incentivized urban reforms will enhance governance, municipal services, and city planning, key enablers for sustained commercial growth. The national framework for Global Capability Centers (GCCs) is particularly encouraging, as we have seen GCCs emerge as some of the largest occupiers of Grade A office spaces. Strategic infrastructure upgrades in emerging cities will unlock new opportunities for businesses and further India’s position as a global services hub.”
Mahaveer Jain, Director, India Ratings & Research said, “Framework to promoting Global Capability Centres in emerging tier 2 cities and strengthening of regional connectivity with modified Udaan scheme. This is aimed at enhancing infrastructure investments and business opportunities thereby creating employment opportunities outside tier 1 cities.”
