Can Indian real estate bridge the gap between the promise and the performance? Can Indian residential market attract as much investment as its commercial real estate? Will the global funds trust the Indian residential real estate? There are more questions than ever and it is time to settle these question marks over the business of real estate.
This home buyers’ outburst over the media hype & industry reaction with reference to reduced GST is not an exception. Across the country the home buyers are questioning how the GST reduction has made the houses affordable in the cities where the jobless growth is fast turning into job loss de-growth. This is over and above the fact that the property prices are way beyond the affordability index.
The real estate has been calculating the revenue on Percentage Completion Method and not Project Completion Method. With the Percentage Completion Method, the developers treated payment received from the home buyers for purchase of flats under construction as turnover of the company and net income generated from such projects was treated as profit.
A section of analysts maintain that it has been proved across the industries that quality audit by third party improves the product or services being offered if it has been implemented in right manner and objectives to improve the quality. As product or services gets improved in standard of quality at consistent basis then perceptions of customer towards the management also improves.
I often question how will honest journalism survive in this eco system. It is not that I don’t face the challenges and resistance of not being a party to this cartel of corruption. Forget the builders, even a large section of builders’ ‘paid & pet’ journalists have issues with me. I am, after all, a game spoiler for them who is spreading the negativity with brutal honest and ruthless journalism.
The Indian real estate market has always been notorious for its lack of transparency, and the changes in recent times has been less than desirable. As India aspires to get clean money into the sector, the foreign funds too have high standards in terms of service quality and clarity.
When the market sentiments were bullish and foreign investors were testing the Indian realty market, many of the relatively not-so-polished developers started hiring these white collared professionals to negotiate with their global counterparts in a language that they understood. Problem started when this skilled workforce started colouring the vision of the promoter and hence driving the management decisions.
Some call it market intelligence and not due diligence where the focus should be more on the micro markets than general trends which could be misleading. However, there are many grey areas where in the absence of proper research and reliable data even the assessment of ground realities is not feasible.
With the Government of India approving an increase in the carpet area of houses for the two middle-income group categories, under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban, the industry stakeholders are getting euphoric as if this is the panacea for the ills that the afflicted the business.
The real estate industry stakeholders are elated with such a prospect since the tax slab being discussed at 5% & 12% is lower than the present taxation. Niranjan Hiranandani, President, NAREDCO said the move would benefit the consumers who will only have to pay one ‘final tax’ on the whole product. This is obviously a good thing to happen, and the real estate industry will welcome the move.