The Union Budget to be presented by the government soon could announce some relief measures for the real estate industry which has seen slowdown for the past many years. Now the industry members are hoping that the government will allow single window clearance, infrastructure push in smaller cities, and inject liquidity into the system. Here is a look at the top demands of the industry:
Uddhav Poddar, MD, Bhumika Group
We expect the government to focus on infrastructure development of tier 2 and 3 cities and make these cities ready for next round of urbanisation. We also expect the long awaited industry status to the real estate sector as next to agriculture, construction is the biggest employment generator. We expect that Stamp Duty should be subsumed into GST.
Lindsay Bernard Rodrigues, Director, Bennet & Bernard Group
Some of the aspects that the government needs to take into consideration in the upcoming budget are granting of industry status to the overall real estate sector, implementation of single window clearance and revision of the income tax slab to boost demand and open up more financial options for developers. Housing loan interest rates also need to be reduced to push demand and sales. A key expectation is the restoration of income tax benefit on a second home which will benefit home buyers in a big way and also stimulate the real estate sector. It is also important that the rental housing be incentivised to address the shortage concern.
Deepak Kapoor, Director, Gulshan Homz
A lot of projects are stuck because of liquidity problem. Recently, government announced funds for such stuck projects but the announced funds have not been allocated. We expect that this fund is made available soon which will help the real estate sector and buyers will get their homes.
Dhiraj Bora, Head Corp Comm, Paramount Group
Government is constantly pushing infrastructure development and we hope that the momentum will be maintained in this budget also. The work on smart cities is stuck and the FM should throw some light on it. The budgetary allocation for the development of smart cities should increase as the present allocation is too low for making the smart cities possible.
Rajat Goel, Joint Managing Director, MRG World
We expect that some more measures should be taken help affordable housing segment. FM should come with policy changes that can make developers to come up with more projects in the segment, people should buy these homes, etc. An announcement for affordable segment on the lines of policy being followed in Haryana can be replicated in other areas.
LC Mittal, Director, Motia Group
There is a dire need to iron out bottlenecks hampering infrastructure growth as once it is removed it will give a fillip to the sector. Also, the granting of infrastructure status to the entire real estate sector is at the forefront as it will help attract more investment. Besides affordable housing, the government should focus on the commercial segment, which has the potential to attract foreign investment and FDI.
Anupam Gupta, Sales, and marketing Director, GBP Group
The ongoing liquidity crunch has a cascading impact across sectors, including real estate. Easing liquidity will increase capital flow for developers and also the buyers. Although, the Government announced the upfront recapitalization of Public Sector Banks so as to improve the credit flow in the economy.
Tejpreet Singh Gill, Executive Director, Gillco Group
The need of the hour is to announce proactive steps to boost this ailing sector. Besides other issues, the growth of the real estate sector is marred by the procedural delay which escalates the project cost affecting the buyers. To facilitate faster clearance, the government should announce a single-window clearance system.
Parveen Aggarwal, Founder & Chairman, Signature Sattva
Any announcement that can help the real estate in tier II and III cities will be helpful to meet the target of Housing for All by 2022. One way is to announce policies that where the buyers too get respite from the cost such as fixing a cost for affordable homes like in Haryana it is around Rs 4,000 per sq.ft. However, the cost should be decided by the government according to the development cost with a clause that the cost will increase as per the inflation.
Amit Raheja, CMD, Wealth Clinic
Like any other sector, the real estate sector has huge expectations from the upcoming Budget 2020. To revive the home buyer interest in the sector, the government should increase the income tax benefits for home buyers. The developers expect that the land acquisition should be made simpler and faster and other requisite approvals required from the state functionaries. We expect that the Budget 2020 to announce industry status to the real estate sector and single window clearance that will further help in raising low-cost funds.