Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has urged the real estate sector to be sensitive to the purchasing power of the poor while pricing their housing units. Speaking at the 10th national convention of the Confederation of Real Estate developers” Association of India (CREDAI) in New Delhi on Dec 16, Mukherjee also called for greater integrity in development, construction and marketing or real estate business.
CREDAI has reacted sharply over the Finance Minister’s asking chiefs of public sector banks to put pressure on real estate developers to lower property prices and not hold invetory. CREDAI has said in a release that instead of asking realtors to download unsold stock at discounted prices, the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram should take immediate steps to boost to housing stock supply through special incentives to the affordable segment.
Track2Realty: The finance ministry is reportedly working on the modalities to revive the real estate sector. According to ministry sources, the move is aimed to ensure that stalled projects get bank sector financing. The move, which is expected to help revive growth, is likely to be decided over the coming weeks.
The Finance Ministry will meet chief executives of leading banks today, Sep 17, to discuss credit flow to the real estate and housing sectors. According to sources D K Mittal, Secretary of Financial Services, will chair the meeting of bankers, which will take stock of credit flow to the sensitive sectors.
Economic intelligence agencies have informed the Finance Ministry that a major chunk of illegal funds and black money is being generated and routed in the real estate sector of the country.
As the Finance Minister Ms Nirmala Sitharaman announced to lower the LTCG (Long Term Capital Gains) from 20% to 12.5%, the stock market took a hit. The analysts across the financial spectrum immediately swung into analysis that the LTCG hike would adversely affect the stock market in the short term but big pocket investors won’t be affected as much as presumed. A section of financial wizards who understand the nuances of personal finance across the asset classes had even bigger a worry – Real Estate. Prima facie what looked like the LTCG being lowered from 20% to now at 12.5%, has in fact hurt the property market the most. Reason: the indexation benefit under Section 48 that is presently available for property, gold, and other unlisted assets have been now proposed to be removed.
The Union Budget 2023-24 has by and large ignored the long standing and some immediate concerns (even needs than wants) of the Indian real estate sector. The Finance Minister has not only ignored the supply side of the business, but also didn’t bother to address the demand side, that is the home buyers. Ironically, the leading voices of the sector are still happy with some of the intangible gains even though tangible benefits are non-existent.
Union Budget every year is the time when all the stakeholders of the Indian economy look up to the Finance Minister with optimism. Track2Realty noted that across the industries the wants & needs of the demand & supply side are not as juxtaposed as with the real estate. While the developers lobby hard to get the best deal out of the Union Budget, the buyers have their own set of choices and concerns. The Finance Minister is expected to walk a tightrope to balance the concerns of various stakeholders.
The real estate developers had a sigh of relief when the Government of India heeded to their demands for declaring Coronavirus hit construction under Force Majeure. The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured the sector to issue an advisory to States and Union Territories and their regulatory authorities to extend the registration and completion date Suo-Moto by six months for all registered projects expiring on or after March 25, 2020 without individual applications.
It seems the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has failed to address the struggling and ailing real estate sector from the standpoint of both the homebuyers as well as the developers. However, what is all the more interesting is the fact that the developers are not overtly complaining. It is only the homebuyers who are sulking while the developers are trying best to put up a brave face.