The real estate sector is seeing the Union Budget 2018 as a balanced one with the concentration on affordable housing solutions. The 2018 Union Budget presented by Mr Arun Jaitely largely focused on farmers and agriculture. However, the announcements made for the affordable housing (Housing for All) sector cheered the real estate sector as well.
The real estate sector is now seeing the Union Budget 2018 as a balanced one with the concentrated focus on affordable housing (Housing for All) as well. Nonetheless, the 2018 budget is not expected to have a direct impact on the sector as concessional GST expectations for the sector was not entertained, noted the real estate experts.
Views from the Real Estate Sector
Many managing directors and CEOs of leading real estate companies have come out in the open and expressed their views on the budget 2018. Here are some excerpts to note:
One of the leading real estate company manager was not happy with what was announced in the budget. He was quipped as saying:
“The budget was largely focused on health, education and agriculture. Real estate was a no-show as none of the expectations of concessional GST for the housing sector, on the whole, 3% stamp duty regularisation or capital gain tax window on REIT and income tax slabs changes were not made.
Another head of a leading real estate company also stated that the salaried group contributes majorly to the industry. The standard deduction will be acting as a breather to future prospective buyers and will bestow them with higher purchasing power when it comes to the real estate purchase/investment. The efforts made to enable digitized transaction is also expected to offer transparency in the Indian real estate sector. A proper implementation of it will also help curb corrupt practices and will fair play for organized players.
The Goal of the Housing for All Scheme is Back on the Track
The goal of the Housing for All by 2022 scheme is quite back on its track as the Central Government is committed to building around one crore affordable houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. They are also committed to setting up a dedicated housing fund under the ambiguity of the National Housing Bank (NHB) for lending in the priority sector.
The demand is also pegged to rise up as the home buyers are expected to be laced with the ease of credit for affordable or aspirational homes. Further, the mission of designing smart city is another landmark step in the right direction. It is further being seen that it will surely influence and spice up the demand for housing in the future.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is busy with laying the foundation for numerous structures under the Housing for All scheme to meet the target of offering housing solutions to all by 2022.
The concerned Ministry is majorly encouraging the participation of private sector developers in centre’s Housing for All scheme under the umbrella of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
The Bottom Line
The trend of the affordable housing solutions is heating up in key metro and non-metro cities all over India.
Further, with the Housing for All scheme spicing up to offer affordable Housing for All by 2022, the real estate market expects to mark an increases cash flow.
The Housing for All is also expected to offer equal chances to both the developer and the buyer, and overall pushing the importance of the real estate sector.